Figures on water use in irrigation and agriculture, and in industrial
production and urban services provision, are available but they are not
adequately incorporated into poverty analysis – on either side of the
balance sheet. There are undoubtedly food productivity and nutritional
gains from irrigated agriculture, and the subsidies from under-priced
water received by farmers using irrigation are often justified on the
basis of cheap food for the urban poor (IPTRID, 1999).