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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Human Waste Used by 200 Million Farmers, Study Says


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A Bolivian farmer in the rural area of Rio Abajo tends crops irrigated by a channel from the Choqueyapu River in 2006. The mountain-born river is polluted by sewage and industrial activity as it makes its way to agricultural lowlands.

An August 2008 study says nearly 200 million farmers in developing countries use raw sewage, often from polluted rivers, to irrigate and fertilize crops.

Photograph by Dado Galdieri/AP Photo