WATER AND CIVILISATION
M.R. Gandhi Retired Chief Engineer
Narmada , Water Resources and Water Supply Department

Government of Gujarat Gandhinagar

1.0 Water - The "soul" of the living World.

1.1 Out of the nine planets of the (Surya-Mandal) Solar system, the Mother "Earth" is the only planet on which, water is available. Not only that, but this water is so abundant in quantity that, one would feel that, the real name of this planet should be "Water" and not "Earth". In fact, after dislocation from the Solar System, when mother Earth went on cooling down, and finally became steady and stable, it comprised water only and there was no land at all. In other words, sea was widespread on the whole of the "Earth". During the course of time, some volcanoes were burst at the bottom of this sea resulting into geographic topping downs which resulted eruptions of some land pieces in the surface, which are recognized as different parts of the Earth thereafter. Such a battle between land and water is going on since ages together and the same is in force at present also.

1.2 In the beginning "Sea" was not saline but on account of washing away of land strata, which fell into the sea, the sea became saline upto some extent by the minerals remaining in them. Secondly, the burst up volcanoes, were also made up of salty minerals which further made the whole sea saline. As per one of the estimate, a huge and gigantic quantity of some 33 crore cubic miles of saline water is found spread on 3/4 : " part of the Earth and the final picture lies in The fact that, out of total quantity of water of the Earth, 97.2% of water is saline (sea water) and only 2.8% is sweet water on which the living world is surviving.

1.3 In the above background, some of the scientists so opine that, when -the first cell took birth on the Earth, its birth was only on account of water on the earth- Thus the whole living world was created through water and thereafter, it was pervaded and maintained. For this reason only, "Water" has bc3n; designated as the "Soul" of the living world. In other words, water is an inevitable element required for existence and development of any living society or civilization. Life does not exist without water and it is essential not only for the existence of a Human Life but also for its happiness, peace and prosperity.

2.0 WATER - THE NURTURING ELEMENTS FOR CIVILIZATION

2.1 From the foregoing Para , it is established that water is one of the most precious elements of nature, sustaining the mother Earth and her inhabitants in every form of life. Any part of it - the country, is blessed with various forms of water bodies viz. Rivers, Lakes, Tanks, Wells and a Wide range of hills and snow capped mountains - the source of many of our perennial rivers. It is on the banks of these rivers that, civilization grew, agricultural activities thrived and trade and commerce flourished. This holds true not only for India but also for those countries of the world which too, had the seat of ancient civilization. Thus, the ancient civilization became known by the name of the rivers which flowed past them like the Sumarian Civilisation, on the bank of River Nile in Egypt , Babilon Civilization on the banks or rivers Ucretis and Tigris in Central Asia , Mohanjo-dero and Harrappan Civilization on the banks of river Indus in India Etc.

2.2 In fact, mankind acutely needs water to survive. This is the reason why almost all the major cities of the world were located and developed on the banks of the rivers or sea shores. For example, London on river Thames , Peris on river Seine, Moscow on river Moscova and Cairo on river Nile . In our own country, Varanasi ., the oldest centre of pilgrimage, is located on the banks of river Ganga , the National capital Delhi , on the banks of rivers Yamuna , Vijayawada on the river Krishna, Ahmedabad on river Sabarmati , Surat on river Tapi and Bharuch on river Narmada .

2.3 In short, wherever a man found water in abundance, he started inhabitating in its vicinity and in order to net the water perennially, he started Constructing Water bodies like Big Reservoirs by building dams across river dams, Lakes, Tanks, Step-wells and in this way, the Mankind with the animals world on one side and such water bodies on the other side, went on developing dependence with each other. It is believed that such water bodies were alive since 1000 years to such an extent that, people used to construct big and small tanks for the cattle stock in the village grass land or in the waste land situated in the outskirts of any village and finally wherever the villages were inhabited, people not only constructed water reservoirs but also built wells, tanks, step wells in the memories of their donors in order to make water available even during famines.