The production of sugar implies another problem. To produce bioethanol, the utilized sugarcane needs great amounts of water. Thus, an increasing bioethanol production volume implies a soaring need for water. Consequently, water streams are diverted from their natural route to supply enough water to the crops. A lack of water at a great level of sugarcane production would rime with a dramatic economic loss. However, diverting streams stands for a jeopardy as depriving areas from water may spark soil erosion. Moreover, collecting and using streams water equates a decrease of the level of water downstream.
In addition to water diversion, to ensure an optimized cultivation of sugarcane, the use of fertilizers is economically indispensable. Nonetheless, those fertilizers then spread into water and contaminate it. According to François Souty, there are fertilizers that are not well known yet very often used and really contaminating like nitrogen protoxide, chlorine etc. For instance, a high dose of nitrogen has been found in the Amazon estuary in very high quantities.