ABSTRACT
Abella was a very small nearby town that took its water into a reservoir through pipes from high mountain ridges and released the surplus down an aqueduct that both supplied Nola and irrigated the surrounding estates. This chapter discusses two messages. One is that the obvious topics such as irrigation and flood control need to be seen within the whole spectrum of interactions between humanity and water; they must be treated, in a sense, ecologically. The other message is that, in the project of understanding that ecology, social relations and cultural values—relations of power, symbols of life—need at least as much attention as technological developments. Water itself has of course been the focus of cult—sacred wells, springs, lakes, or swamps. The religion of water is at least in part a religion of irrigation, whether natural or man-made. Microecologies use water in numerous ways that are far removed from the big human interventions of irrigation and drainage.
