 Click here for a brief historical perspective on the use of water by human societies. The development of rivers has been intrinsic to numerous civilizations. As Fred Pearce notes, dams and canals were the basis for extensive irrigation in several ancient societies in which agricultural surpluses enabled the formation of complex social organizations, as in ancient Mesopotamia, and along the Nile in Egypt, the Indus in Pakistan and the Yellow River in China. The importance of water development to these societies led to their controversial characterization by Karl Wittfogel as "hydraulic civilisations" that had developed specifically in order to organize the large labour forces necessary to create the canals and other works. In the Middle East, the Roman world, Renaissance Europe and elsewhere, water works have had a persistent importance, as a basis for agricultural production, economic activity, and the maintenance of state power. (Source: Fred Pearce, The Dammed, pp. 9-40.)
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