Salinity Management

Is the world getting saltier?

Yes it is! And here is some of what it means:

Around 20% of all the arable land in the world is irrigated. And around 20% of all the irrigated land suffers from salinization. We lose 1.6 million hectares this way every year.

With Climate Change and rising sea levels, the saline sea waters are pushing harder to infiltrate onto land and aquifers. Urban freshwater resources are getting increasingly saline due to seawater intrusion, activities in neighbouring rural areas, and improper management of human waste. Cities, now, have to spend more on water treatment and supply, making water (and everything else) more expensive.

Welcome to this theme page on TheWaterChannel, where we ask “Is the world getting saltier?,” “How?,” “Where?” and “What are we doing about it?.” We have brought together videos, webinars, resources, links, discussions, articles, and blog posts that would help answer this critical question and raise others that are important to ask. But this is not a static repository. We urge you to participate: comment, voice your opinion, share your knowledge, and post your videos. Please enrich this space and add to the discussion.

Just because we do not see it, we cannot continue to ignore the issue of salinization of arable land and freshwater resources.