ABSTRACT
Water regulates population growth, influences world health and living conditions, and determines biodiversity. For thousands of years, people have tried to control the flow and quality of water. Water provided resources and a means of transportation for development in some areas. Even today, the presence or absence of water is critical in determining how we can use land. Yet, despite this long experience in water use and water management, humans often fail to manage water well. Sound water management was pushed aside in favor of rapid, never-ending economic development in many countries. Often, optimism about the applications of technology (e.g., dam building, wastewater treatment, irrigation measures) exceeded concerns for, or even interest in, environmental shortcomings. Pollution was viewed as the inevitable consequence of development, the price that must be paid to achieve economic progress.
