During the period from early 16 century to the 1790’s water use in the history of the United States affected the everyday life of the inhabitants present that is before the settlers and colonists migration to this region. The natives were Indians, and for their diet, they conducted regular fishing and grew a few crops. When the white people arrived in this area, the Indians were able to trade with them in exchange for their products such as clothes and kitchenware. The Indians understood the weather pattern and the climate in this region as they had lived there for long, and with their help, the immigrants were able to sustain themselves. Without the help of the inhabitants, the immigrants would find the land very challenging to inhabit and would possibly turn back away. Water is important in every part of the individuals’ life, without it, what would humans use water for cooking, growing crops, cleaning, or rearing of animals? Water shapes the livelihood of human beings, families, and communities. Good harbors, ports, adequate rainfall, and good productive land contributed to the entry of foreigners to the extent of not leaving. The white people drove away from the natives forcefully and took control of the area from the coast to the inland. This essay will show how the white settlers and the succeeding generations utilized water in individual capacity across different aspects of life.
Water plays an important role in humankind even in the history times but time changes and scientific hydrological approaches are changing the practices of water. Water management policies, technologies, and practices interrelate with economic, social, political and ideological forces in society. Throughout the history, humans are striving to achieve ways of transporting, procuring and allocating water into various uses. Between the years 900 and 1200 years people in the arid northeastern area built dams and canals to distribute water and had trade groups with central Mexico and the Mississipi River Valley 1 . Drought hit the area, and the survivors relocated to the south and east where they perfected their culture of desert farming. The farming was through irrigation systems which provided water for crops of beans, cotton, and corn 2 .The distribution, quality, and amount of water are the main determinants of health, subsistence, and settlement potentials in humans. Sioux Indians tried to improve infrastructure in the Dakotas like building the Oahe dam to control the flooding in Missouri River and provide hydroelectric power. Re-constructing the Missouri River changed the Standing Rock Sioux’s way of life by eliminating the natural resources that the tribe depended on. The Standing Rock Sioux battle is to protect their ancestral lands and safe water. Some challenges like water shortages, pollution, are conditions that term water as a contested resource in the world. Most of the built environment such buildings, bridges, water pipes and fields in America are lead-infected/poisoned 3 .
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During the 1800’s and early 1900’s, there emerged water-related epidemics from lead poisoning across the United States which is the primary cause of lead in water pipes, a situation affecting Flint, Michigan. Although scientists and lead industry convinced people in the past that chronic absorption of lead is not poisonous, it is not true. In the 1920’s the National Lead Company had proclaimed that lead was a valuable metal as it is used to guard humans’ health. This lead’s campaign succeeded in integrating through to the infrastructure responsible for supplying drinking water. The supply lines, water towers, storage tanks, and drainage pipes were all painted with lead pigment both out and inside. The industry convinced the people that the amount of lead that leached into the water was insignificant and they were in no danger. Lead leaching into the water can cause learning disabilities in children, behavioral problems, mental retardation, and other health crisis to the public. Residents in Flint are complaining about the color, taste, and the smell of water recently after the Flint Water Service Center switched their distribution channels. FWSC switched from DWSD to using their facilities to treat water in the hope that the city would save money. The citizens are now participating in marches to push for clean water. The military veterans are also helping in fighting against water pollution in Flint, Michigan which is after supporting Americans block Dakota Access Pipeline from passing their reservation 4 .
The state, federal, and city officials took no heed in dealing with the Flint citizens water complains about lead pipes. The problem grew without proper handling, and now it is massive and very costly to control. Economics have a hard time making choices on whether to delead the water pipes which will reduce the health exposures the children and all people are facing or let the lead paint remain which saves money. Back in the history, preventing corrosion in the pipes would involve treating the Flint River, which is the source of drinking water but today repairing Flint water system and fixing the damaged system in the United States is hard. The water crisis in Flint is a tale of systematic failure in government. Water is a basic human need, and the federal law is held accountable for improving high lead levels and testing drinking water to ensure its safe for human consumption and usage. The government did not listen to or even act on the concerns of the residents. Some may argue that the economic status of Flint (it is a poor land) have a major contribution in explaining why the government neglected the situation. American history exhibits that water is a contested resource because of economical, political, social, and technological dynamics that have altered the nations natural landscape. The indigenous have a relationship with water that is distinct from Europeans and Americans in North America.
Water represented freedom for immigrants from Ireland and China, and other eastern European countries coming through Ellis and Angel Island, but water also represented dismal opportunities and danger when arriving at work in the big cities. Beginning with WWI, war has disrupted the natural landscape and ushered in environmental concerns, such as the use of the atomic bomb to end WWII, and set the stage for a Cold War foreign policy that decimated the natural resources of the Global South. During the civil rights movement of the sixties, water was used to repel the efforts of Black Americans to obtain civil rights, while foreign policy challenged the nationalization of the Suez Canal, a thirteen-day Cuban Missile crisis, and other strategic military points. The post-Cold War world saw shifts in the economic, social, and political landscapes, and ushered in environmental and humanitarian concerns, such as access to clean water became a pressing matter 5 .
Water management as an economic good is a great way of a country encouraging protection and conservation of water resources. It is a basic right for the humans to have access to safe water at an affordable price. If the economic value of the water resources is not recognized many will waste and damage the use of this resource which is not good. Water is not just a substance that sustains life to the humans, but it ekes out a living for the human beings. Management of water on regional and local levels passes through some historical changes in connection with vital and specific advances in social organizations. Some of the transformations include use of drainage methods, water transport technologies for long distances, use of irrigation and storage facilities. Although people have tried addressing risks from lead, the calamity befalling Flint shows that the old leader of an infrastructure of using lead is exposing humans to health risks. During the progressive era, globalization impacted cultures, as NAFTA took advantage of cheap labor and weak environmental regulations. The ideas of industrial freedom in this era had meanings such as empowering workers to join in making economic decisions and raising the standards of living of the citizens 6 . The government believed that it had the right to increase freedom by regulating economic activity in the interests of the public. People in an area should share natural resources like water equally.
It is not hard to justify as a nation humans draw attention to water at a time of crisis. With the increased industries and services that require a new demand for water that in the history was only used in agriculture and food production. Water demand increased extraordinary matching with an attack on the safety of water resources as a result of industrial and urban pollutants. Today, in a case of water shortages the country faces a major threat to humanity which has led to a overabundance of labors by responsible parties scholars, individuals, organizations, and institutions. Besides, humankind faces a grave challenge as notions of the existing water scarcity, and the portentous prospect of worldwide droughts and changes in weather conditions are pushing policymakers to search for political remedies, and water professionals to develop managerial and technical remedies to water scarcity. Today the technologically and scientifically are dominating the water management systems.
Bibliography
Eric, Foner. Give Me Liberty:An American History. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011.
Eric, Foner. Voices of freedom . New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.
1 Foner Eric, Give Me Liberty:An American History (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011), 11.
2 Eric, Give Me Liberty:An American History, 11.
3 Eric, Give Me Liberty:An American History , 13.
4 Eric, Give Me Liberty:An American History, 850
5 Foner Eric, Voices of freedom,( New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005), 92
6 Eric, Voices of freedom, 80
