ABSTRACT
Society and water are inextricably intertwined. It is even possible to conceive of society in terms of how it modifies and adapts the hydrological cycle. There is no substitute for water, and without it human beings die in days, and, after varying periods of deprivation, so do their crops and animals. In the industrialising state water provides energy for mills and turbines, the means of sanitation for the inhabitants, and the principal medium of countless industrial applications. As the level of development of nations has increased, so has their demand on water, and so has the scale of the harnessing of local and regional water resources.
