NPR

Irrigation For Farming Could Leave Many Of The World's Streams and Rivers Dry

A new study shows many of the world's streams and rivers could dry up because people are draining underground aquifers that sustain streams through dry periods. Climate change won't help matters.
The long arms of pivot irrigation rigs deliver water <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=766510790&live=1">from the Ogallala Aquifer</a> to circular fields of corn in northwestern Kansas. A new study suggests many of the world's rivers and streams could dry up because people are draining underground aquifers that sustain streams through dry periods.

Something odd is happening to streams and rivers on the high plains of Kansas and Colorado. Some have disappeared.

"We would go and visit these streams, and in many cases it's like a dirt bike channel. It's no longer functioning as a stream," says , a

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