Malaria can be controlled by modifying
or manipulating agricultural water systems.
In the early 1900s better maintenance and
improvements of irrigation and drainage
systems reduced malaria cases by more than
half in the Arab Republic of Egypt, India,
and Indonesia.9 A case study in India in
1940–41 showed that intermittent irrigation
of rice fi elds reduced malaria contraction
from 48 percent to 4 percent. Today, there
are many options to mitigate the negative
effects of irrigation while maintaining agricultural
productivity. They include providing
location-specifi c knowledge of drainage
techniques, intermittently wetting and drying
rice fi elds, alternating rice with a dryland
crop, and using livestock as “bait” for
mosquitoes