As global population grows and such countries as China and India develop larger middle classes, access to enough water for drinking, agriculture, and other uses is sure to pose problems in the coming decades. But only the details here are new, for water has always been one of civilization's key ingredients, just as water engineering has provided the means by which humans have brought water to their places of abode. In Water Engineering in Ancient Civilizations, author Pierre-Louis Viollet drives this point home by offering a history of man's water-oriented endeavors beginning millennia in the past. The survey encompasses agriculture, irrigation, flood protection, wastewater drainage, and, of course, the constant need to supply freshwater to population centers.
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