ABSTRACT
Box 18.4 Salinization in the Argolid area of Greece Farmers in the Argolid have turned increasingly to irrigated agriculture. This irrigation has led to the lowering of the pressures in the aquifers, the penetration of sea water and the transfer of salt to the land, reducing yields and producing a demand for an increase in the irrigated land and hence more need to pump more water for irrigation (Figure 18.5). In this way, a vicious circle is produced: the more that is pumped, the more that has to be pumped. Canals have been built to bring water from the Tripoli Mountains and more and larger canals are being constructed to allow the continued and expanding cultivation of citrus fruit trees, especially in the lower parts of the catchment. With the construction of new larger canals, the problem of their routes and the distribution of new water resources has provoked much controversy (Allen et al., 1999: 428). The system of irrigation in use is also the very wasteful ‘flood irrigation’ method, in which water is left to stand on the surface in shallow basins in the soil, while it infiltrates (and evaporates!).
