ABSTRACT
The period 1950-1970 witnessed the apogee of modernity's Promethean project, when advances in urban environmental infrastructure in Western states allowed for greater control over nature. Although highly contested, particularly with respect to the democratic deficit it created, the centralization of power over water resource management after World War II did deliver many of the promised material goods. Between 1950 and 1970 the majority of urban households in the Western world had access to drinking water. By 1990, 100% of the urban population in Europe and Northern America enjoyed full access to water supply and sanitation services. l It was the apogee of modernity's Promethean project. Despite differences in hydrological and institutional configurations, as Western cities became increasingly thirsty, the networks bringing water to them grew and their ecological footprints expanded yet further. 2 While Athens succeeded in overflowing its main reservoir at Mornos, in other parts of the Western world the results were even more impressive. In London, the increase in domestic water availability was coupled by a successful campaign for cleaning up the tidal Thames. By the late 1970s, more than 90 varieties of fish had returned to the Thames.3
