Premodern Streams of Thought in Twenty-First-Century Water Management

Abstract

It has become a truism to observe that the world faces a "water crisis." 1 Since the early 1990s, scientists and commentators have studied and debated the myriad socioeconomic, geopolitical, and ecological problems that have contributed to, and will result from, our state of "peak water." Already in some parts of the world, water consumption exceeds the amount of water that is naturally replenished each year. 2 According to the 2009 edition of The World's Water, nearly two out of three people in the world could be living under conditions of water stress in the year 2025. 3 This frightening situation, which has resulted from the (mis)management of the world's waterways, looks set to worsen over the decades ahead as climate change and other pressures take their toll. Governments, activists, and scholars have produced many potential solutions to the world's water crisis. Activist Maude Barlow in her important book The Blue Covenant argues for a global covenant on water that is centered on the premise of the inalienable human right to clean water. Under this covenant, people and their governments would protect and conserve the world's water supplies, ensure water for those in both the global North and the global South, and seek the peaceful resolution of disputes regarding water between states. 4 Scientists Meena Palaniappan and Peter H. Gleick advocate a "soft path for water," which combines water resource management with an emphasis on efficiency, productivity, equity, and community participation. 5 Others, meanwhile, have advised governments to leave the problem

A Drop in the Ocean. On Writing Histories of Water Resources Management

“…Whatever the concept applied, human-water relations also have implications for the ways that humans in societies make meaning out of water. For example, ideas about water often relate to its purity and transformability, which are expressed in Hindu rituals near the river Ganges, baptism rituals of Christian conversion, and ritual cleansing before Muslim prayer (Strang 2004(Strang , 2015Morgan and Smith 2013).…”

“…The local reservoirs were especially affected: at the time they provided seventy per cent of the region's potable water supplies (Mauger 1989, 16). To supplement the dams, the water utility relied increasingly on the groundwater reserves beneath the Swan Coastal Plain, but these too were susceptible to the drier conditions that were underway (Morgan 2015).…”

De polder als eeuwig slagveld. Landschap, waterbeheer en militaire metaforiek

“…De historici Ruth Morgan en James Smith stellen dat premoderne manieren van denken over de relatie tussen mens en water nog rondspoken in het huidige waterbeheer. 23 Ik zou een stap verder willen gaan. Deze manieren van denken hebben zich gematerialiseerd in de klei, de sloten en het helmgras.…”

An Eco-Theological interpretation of Proverbs 5:15-20 in the light of water crises experienced in present-day Africa

“…To spurn or disrespect the waters was an insult, an act of defiance against a figure of authority with the power to punish. 62 In this sense, v. 17a and v. 18a are used in a synonymous parallelism. The advice "let them be for you alone" is synonymous with "let your fountains be blessed."…”