Not only am I aware of this fact, I have actually been to a river in a desert! And there's still a reason not much grows there. You start piping the water from

Not only am I aware of this fact, I have actually been to a river in a desert! And there's still a reason not much grows there. You start piping the water from that river into the desert and grow tropical fruit orchards you wind up with problems, such as those we see in southern california, which you might be surprised to find out is what we are actually discussing, water shortages caused by trying to grow tropical fruit orchards in a desert with rivers flowing through it.