The industrial revolutions were incredible periods of time with fascinating technological

discoveries being made every day. However, this time period did cause major impacts to the
world’s water usage. The second industrial revolution, which ended in about 1914, had major
water consequences for the future. The 20th century saw an increase in water usage of about nine
times in comparison to the past. Throughout the century, municipal water usage only rose about
six percent, industrial water usage climbed 19 percent higher than its initial take at the start of the
century. The industrial water gain over the century was about 950 cubic kilometers, or about 8
times the volume of the Dead Sea in Israel.
Diamond mining in South Africa is a prime example of how the industrial revolution
caused water to be misused. Great amounts of water were required to just process the ore and
find the diamonds. However, toxic chemicals were also needed for this process. Lead, mercury
and cyanide are just a few examples of the chemicals required. Due to lack of regulations
regarding water quality, these chemicals were introduced into the local water supplies,
effectively ruining them for the population.
The industrial revolution brought in an era where the value of water was not recognized.
Based on the trends water usage trends we saw, conversation efforts were little to none. Water is
critical to our everyday lives, as we can’t survive for more than 3 days without it. Following this
period, very few regulations were put on the quality of water. It wasn’t until the 1960’s that
people realized that the effect of water pollution, as people started realizing they were pulling
from polluted sources. It wasn’t truly until 1974 when the Safe Drinking Water Act was passed
that people really began to care. Today, we still combat the effects of water pollution brought on
by this industrial revolution, and we have systems in place to ensure that our water stays as clean
as possible.
Throughout history, water has been a critical resource for all societies. However, the historical
record is marked with many examples of water mismanagement being the downfall of
civilizations. The Anasazi people, who dwelled in present day New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and
Colorado, are a prime example of this. Their society flourished between 900 and 1300.
Although the region they inhabited was notoriously dry, their agricultural technologies were
superb and sufficed to support their civilization. However, as their population grew, they began
to deplete their water resources much quicker than they could be replenished by rainfall1.
Ultimately, they were forced to leave their land because of the fact they overstretched their
resources.
The Khmer people of Angkor also struggled with managing their water. For their time,
the city of Angkor was an engineering masterpiece. The architectural feats were astounding, and
the water control systems were beyond anything of the time. Additionally, the Khmer built large
bodies of water for religious reasons, known as Barays, which are still present to this day2.
However, their elaborate water system proved to be their downfall. Historians discovered that
throughout the 14th and 15th centuries that Angkor was struck by a deadly combination of
droughts and monsoons. This caused mechanical failures in their water system, and it most
notably caused the failure of the dam built on the Siem Reap River3. Because of all the
maintenance required for their water system, their city fell due to outside people, as the Khmer
did not have the manpower to allocate to defend themselves.
Today’s water problems do have their similarities to the past. In California, water is
being lost at a rate of 15 cubic kilometers per year from the Sacramento and San Joaquin river
basins alone since 2011. Just like the Anasazi, NASA water scientist James Famiglietti collected
enough data to prove that were depleting our water resources faster than they can be
replenished4. However, our modern day society doesn’t have the issue the Khmer people did.
With the improvement of water delivery technology, the current design systems are simple and
effective, leading to very few catastrophic mechanical failures. Even when our systems fail, we
have engineers trained to quickly troubleshoot and solve these mechanical problems.
We see similar patterns with our water usage throughout time and are well aware of the
consequences if we continue along those paths. As “those who don’t know history are doomed
to repeat it”, we must stress the potential outcomes of our poor water usage and get the point
across that something has to be done quickly to save our water sources.

1 Jared Diamond. "Ecological Collapses of Past Civilizations." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
138, no. 3 (September 1994): 363-70. Accessed January 29, 2016. JSTOR.

2 Richard Stone. "Divining Angkor." National Geographic, July 2009

3 Stone, “Divining Angkor.”

4 Tom Philpott. "These Maps of California's Water Shortage Are Terrifying." Mother Jones. October 30, 2014.
Accessed January 29, 2016. www.motherjones.com.