Water isn't lost, but water is polluted. And when you put water into the groundwater then it mixes with heavily polluted water from, among other things, agricul

Water isn't lost, but water is polluted. And when you put water into the groundwater then it mixes with heavily polluted water from, among other things, agriculture. The Dutch farms may be efficient, but they are definitely polluting. "In the Netherlands water pollution originating from agriculture is an important environmental concern. While recent trends indicate that the pressure from farming on water quality is diminishing, absolute levels of pollution remain amongst the highest across the OECD (Figures 2-5). Agriculture is the major source of nutrients, pesticides and the only known source of heavy metals in water. Pollution from endocrine disrupters and veterinary medicines in terms of potential impacts on human and wildlife reproductive systems is also a concern. The total external costs of agricultural water pollution are unknown, but in the late 1990s the annual external costs of eutrophication associated with nitrate emissions was estimated at €600 million (US$540 million), and for treating drinking water polluted with nitrates at an annual cost of €23 million (US$21 million)." http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07900627.2010.531898 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07900627.2010.53...