Irrigation and Drainage Potentials in Humid Areas

In the words of the demographers, the world's population is “exploding.” If present growth rates continue to the year 2000, the population of the United States will have increased approximately 1.82 times, Communist China 2.16 times, and other areas of the world by like amounts. It is estimated that by the year 2000 the United States will be producing approximately one-third more food than needed for its own people, while Communist China and much of the rest of the world will be producing less than one-half the food needed. Under those circumstances mass starvation would be inevitable. Civil engineers must accept the responsibility for making the cultivate d lands yield most efficiently through proper irrigation and drainage, particularly in the humid areas of the world.