When large-scale irrigation came to Peru’s north coast in the 1960s and 1970s it brought with it an explosion in agriculture, in particular rice cultivation. But it also brought a new disease to the area — malaria.
“The north coast is a semi-arid area, the only reason there is malaria there is because of irrigation,” says Andrés Sánchez, a senior program specialist with Canada’s International Development Research Centre, which is supporting a project in the region that could help eliminate the deadly disease. “It’s a man-made problem.”
Fortunately, there’s also a man-made solution. Read more in Canadian Geographic.