by Bob Trowbridge

Created on: April 15, 2007   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

Without potable water, there is no civilization. All living things, humans included, need water for survival. This is why all of the great civilizatiions of the world blossomed near a water source, a river or a sea. Rivers not only provided the people with needed water for personal use and for irrigation of crops. They also provided transportation for trading or making war and were usually also useful in defending the land.

When we look at our earth, it is known that most of the land mass is covered with water. This fact can lead to a false and dangerous assumption. With all of this water, and with it continuously recycling through evaporation and rain and snowfall, we will never have to worry about water. But the fact is that earth's water is 97.2% saline. Only 2.8% is fresh water.

All of the great empires began near water, the Roman Empire, the Egyptian Empire, the Venetian Empire, and the Omayyad Dynasty. The Omayhad Dynasty stretched from Spain to China at its height. It included Syria and Iraq and other middle eastern countries. Samarra, today's Iraq, had baths and latrines in every home.

But it wasn't enough to settle near a river. The great civilizations controlled their water. The Romans were known for their extensive aqueducts and their baths. All of the great civilizations built dams, aqueducts, and canals to control the movement of water for distribution and to save up water for dry times. And the rivers did not just irrigate crops but had their own crops in terms of fish and other river life and river greenery.

Just as water was the impetus for the creation of our greatest civilizations, so can the lack of fresh water bring down the greatest modern civilizations. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:"

"Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."

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