Irrigation water use by county, Georgia, 2010.

Water Withdrawal by Source and Category in Georgia, 2010

Irrigation water use by county.

Throughout the world, irrigation (water for agriculture, or growing crops) is probably the most important use of water (except for drinking and washing a smelly dog, perhaps). Estimates vary, but about 70 percent of all the world's freshwater withdrawals go towards irrigation uses (http://www.globalagriculture.org/report-topics/water.html). Large-scale farming could not provide food for the world's large populations without the irrigation of crop fields by water gotten from rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and wells. Without irrigation, crops could never be grown in the deserts of California, Israel, or my tomato patch.