Ihp Essays on Water History Fekri Hassan #02
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization WATER HISTORY FOR OUR TIMES IHP ESSAYS ON WATER HISTORY FEKRI HASSAN #02 International Hydrological Programme WATER HISTORY FOR OUR TIMES Water_History_int.indd 1 20/06/11 11:04 Published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 7, place Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France © UNESCO All rights reserved The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout the publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The author is responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the institution. Cover layout by MH Design Photo on cover: © iStock/Ivan Bajic Editing: Alison Clayson, Susan Curran, Alexander Otte Editorial coordination: Alexander Otte Printed by UNESCO Printed in France SC-2011/WS/5 Water_History_int.indd 2 20/06/11 11:04 WATER HISTORY FOR OUR TIMES IHP ESSAYS ON WATER HISTORY VOLUME 02 FEKRI HaSSan UNESCO Publishing United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Water_History_int.indd 3 20/06/11 11:04 PREFacE The history of water management is nothing less than the history of humankind in its attempts to eke out a living and, whenever possible, satisfy its desires. For human beings water was not merely a substance that sustained life. It was above all an elemental ingredient in the way people conceived of the world and a principal component in the expression of their thoughts and emotions. For millions of years, hunters and gatherers depended on the wild plants and animals sustained by rainfall, which varied significantly from one place to another, but was on the whole insufficient to provide food for large, dense, settled popula- tions. Around 10,000 years ago, the structure and dynamics of human societies were radically transformed due to the development of food production in favourable habitats all around the world. Communities that settled along the banks of great rivers and those that had access to abundant groundwater were faced with frequent food shortages to which they responded with novel social mechanisms. Since then, the reciprocal relationships between water supply, arable land, food production and social organization have led to significant transformations in the configurations and structural dynamics of human societies. In general, the management of water on both local and regional levels has undergone a series of historical transformations in association with significant developments in social organization. 5 Water_History_int.indd 5 20/06/11 11:04 These transformations included the invention and widespread use of irrigation and drainage methods, water-lifting devices, long-distance water transport technologies and storage facilities. In part, these transformations were stimulated by the emer- gence of urban centres and the growing demand for water as cities expanded and the spectrum of water-demanding activities broadened. Successful water management leading to greater food production was accompanied by a sustained increase in the size of the human population. The world population rose rapidly after the advent of industry in the 1800s. Cities, once inhabited by a few thousand people, have mushroomed and multiplied in number. The acceleration of the pace of industry and a new set of services have created a new demand for water that was once primarily allocated to agriculture and food production. This extraordinary increase in the demand for water has been matched by an attack on the purity of water resources caused by industrial and urban pollutants. Over the last two decades, the realization that water shortages pose a serious threat to humanity has triggered a plethora of efforts by concerned individuals, scholars, organizations and institutions. In 1977 the emerging problems related to water scarcity led to the United Nations Water Conference (Mar del Plata, Argentina). This was the first intergovernmental conference devoted exclusively to an attempt to find solutions to water problems and apply them at national, regional and international level in order to improve the social conditions of humankind, especially in developing countries. In 1980 the UN General Assembly proclaimed the Declaration of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade. In 1992 the United Nations International Conference on Water and the Environ- ment was organized in Dublin and the Conference on Environment and Develop- ment (the ‘Earth Summit’) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Attended by 100 heads of state, the summit addressed urgent problems of water, the environment and socio- economic development. The assembled leaders signed the Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, endorsed the Rio Declaration 6 l Water History for Our Times Water_History_int.indd 6 20/06/11 11:04 and the Forest Principles, and adopted Agenda 21, a 300-page plan for achieving sustainable development in the twenty-first century. Realizing the importance of understanding the social dimension of water manage- ment, the International Hydrological Programme (IHP), under its Secretary András Szöllösi-Nagy, began actively to develop various areas for action. One of the initia- tives in the fifth phase of the programme (1996–2001) was an investigation into the history of water and civilization. I prepared a document entitled ‘Water and Civiliza- tion’ in collaboration with Jerry Delli Priscoli in 1997. IHP’s efforts were paralleled by an initiative that led in 1996 to the establishment of the World Water Council (WWC) by renowned water specialists and international organizations, in response to increasing concern from the global community about world water issues. From 1 to 6 September 1997, the First Meeting of the General Assembly of members of the WWC was held in Montreal, Canada, during the Ninth World Water Congress of the International Water Resources Association (IWRA). I presented a paper entitled ‘Water and Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective on Management and Devel- opment of Water Resources’ during this meeting. With the continued commitment to a further exploration of the social dimension, IHP organized a meeting to launch a book series entitled the History of Water and Civilization (HWC) and encouraged the establishment in 2001 of the International Water History Association (IWHA). As a founding member of the preparatory meeting for the UNESCO-IHP book series, I was appointed editor-in-chief of this long-term project in 2007, and served as President of IWHA from 2005 to 2007, promoting contributions from a broad spectrum of scholars on various aspects of water history. From the initial survey and synthesis of water history and civilization at the Montreal meeting in 1997, it became clear that there is a need to re-conceptualize human history within a new theoretical formulation – one that would enable us to mine historical sources for a deeper understanding of the forces and dynamics that have shaped and steered human societies, in different habitats and with different historical trajectories, towards the contemporary world order with its myriad 7 Water_History_int.indd 7 20/06/11 11:04 problems and potentialities. This prompted me to prepare a working document for the potential editors and authors of the HWC entitled ‘Rewriting Water History’. Realizing that this piece might be of some benefit not only to historians of water, but to all those who are concerned with the social and historical dimensions of water management, I was asked by IHP to rework it so that it would also provide a summary of the key developments in the history of water and civilization. I have done this within an explanatory framework that emphasizes social dynamics in a continually changing world. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I wish to acknowledge my immense debt to András Szöllösi- Nagy, currently Rector of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, for his unwavering support and deep commitment to an exploration of the relationships between society and water. I am also grateful for the many fruitful discussions with Jerry Delli Priscoli, currently editor-in-chief of Water Policy, with whom I undertook my first venture into the history of water and civilization. Over the years, further discussions in London, Paris, Montreal, Washington, D.C. and many other cities have not dimmed the spark generated by Jerry’s insightful mind. I should also like to express my thanks to all the officers of IWHA who have, since its inception, provided the opportunity for scholars from all over the world to come together to rewrite water history. Those scholars have immensely enriched our knowledge of all aspects of water history, from ancient civilization to our recent past. I have also bene- fited enormously from discussions with distinguished members of the editorial board and editors of the IHP History of Water and Civilization series. Special thanks are due to Alexander Otte, who has been indispensable in coordinating this series. In addi- tion, I am grateful to Lazlo Hyde, who organizes and participates in a short course at IHE on the history of water management. Exchanges among the students as well as the visiting lecturers have been invaluable. This essay is a token of my appreciation of all those whose ideas and actions have been such a source of inspiration. 8 l Water History for Our Times Water_History_int.indd 8 20/06/11 11:04 FOREwORd by Andras Szöllösi-Nagy Rector UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education Delft, The Netherlands and J. Alberto Tejada-Guibert Director a.i. of the Division of Water Sciences Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme It is our great pleasure to see this exceptionally timely essay appear. When UNESCO started exploring water history over fifteen years ago, the idea was born out of the insight that we needed to understand better what had brought about the critical water situation the world was facing then.