Has anyone ever given any thought to trying to capture all the floodwaters that seem to be increasing lately, and moving them to the more drought affected areas?

  • RegalPotoo@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    On top of the logistics of moving massive amounts of water around, flood water is typically highly contaminated - by their nature, floods sweep up everything in their path, which typically will include things like:

    • Soil and sand (a massive pain to filter out)
    • Agricultural run off (manure, pesticides, fertilizer, …)
    • Raw sewage (from treatment plants that tend to be near waterways, or just from damaged infrastructure)
    • Industrial wastes (from existing plants, or old contaminated sites)

    Infectious disease is a major problem after a flood, partly because of infrastructure damage but also just because so many people will have come in contact with contaminated water - you don’t want to irrigate your crops with flood water, much less drink it