- •Part I Unit 1 Water
- •Introduction
- •Vocabulary
- •Exercises
- •Текст а Water Is Life
- •Text c Water for Drinking
- •Unit 2 Water Resources
- •Introduction
- •Vocabulary
- •Exercises
- •Text a Sources of Fresh Water Surface Water
- •Text b Sources of Fresh Water Ground Water
- •Text c Where is Earth's Water Located?
- •Text d Sources of Fresh Water Fresh Water Storage
- •Frozen Water
- •Unit 3 Uses of Fresh Water
- •Introduction
- •Vocabulary
- •Exercises
- •Text a Agricultural and Industrial Use of Water
- •Industrial
- •Text c Chemicals in Water Supply near Chicago Linked to Cancer
- •Increasing Water Scarcity
- •Unit 4 From the History of Water Supply
- •Introduction
- •Vocabulary
- •Exercises
- •Text a From the History of Water Supply
- •Текст в
- •Text c Water Supplies in the Wider World
Text c Water Supplies in the Wider World
Water is vital to life. It has played an important part in the history of all great countries and civilizations.
The Indus Civilization, which produced the first cities of Mohnjo-Daro and Harappa around 2500 BC, also built the first sewers. They even had manhole covers so they could be cleaned and unblocked.
Jerusalem in the times of King Hezekiah in the 7th century BC was supplied by man-made underground water tunnel which led from a protected spring outside the walls.
The Roman Empire was famous for building raised canals called aqueducts to bring water to its cities. Every day the people of Rome used more than one thousand million litres of water for all uses including fountains and baths. Few homes had piped water though. This was drawn from public fountains or wells. People carried their waste to sewage disposal points, which led to the Great Sewer or Cloaca Maxima.
The Inca Empire provided homes for about 12 million people - over twice the size of modern Scotland. To keep people healthy, a stone channel ran down each street in the main city Cuzco carrying fresh water from the mountains, ready to flush away sewage.
The Ashanti Kingdom in 18th century West Africa was very clean. Buildings in the capital Kumasi had sewage pipes, which were cleaned daily with boiling water. And even remote villages had public toilets.