In China and the United States, water demands are concentrated in limited parts of the country, in general where agriculture needs to be irrigated or where economic development is occurring. This trend is explained largely by the rapid increase in irrigation development stimulated by food demand in the 1970s and by the continued growth of agriculture-based economies (WWAP, 2009). In the 1980s, some countries stabilised their abstractions through more efficient irrigation techniques, the decline of water intensive industries (e.g. mining, steel), increased use of cleaner production technologies and reduced losses in pipe networks. Trends since 1990 indicate a more general stabilisation of water abstractions and a relative decoupling between water use and GDP growth in the OECD area (Figure B.2).