Yet there is a dark side to this picture: despite our progress, half of the world’s population still suffers, with water services inferior to those available to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Nearly one fifth of all the electricity generated worldwide is produced by turbines spun by the power of falling water. Food production has kept pace with soaring populations mainly because of the expansion of artificial irrigation systems that make possible the growth of 40 % of the world’s food. Unprecedented construction of tens of thousands of monumental engineering projects designed to control floods, protect clean water supplies, and provide water for irrigation and hydropower brought great benefits to hundreds of millions of people. At the height of the Roman Empire, nine major systems, with an innovative layout of pipes and well-built sewers, supplied the occupants of Rome with as much water per person as is provided in many parts of the industrial world today.ĭuring the industrial revolution and population explosion of the 19th and 20th centuries, the demand for water rose dramatically.
As towns gradually expanded, water was brought from increasingly remote sources, leading to sophisticated engineering efforts such as dams and aqueducts. The history of human civilisation is entwined with the history of the ways we have learned to manipulate water resources. A - A description of ancient water supplies
0 kommentar(er)
