Marnie Leybourne, Andrea Gaynor, eds. Water: Histories, Cultures, Ecologies. Crawley: University of Western Australia Press, 2006. xviii + 246 pp. $35.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-920694-80-7.

Reviewed by Abraham Hoffman (Los Angeles Valley College)
Published on H-Water (March, 2009)
Commissioned by Justin M. Scott-Coe (Monte Vista Water District; Claremont Graduate University)

An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Water

In July 2003, the University of Western Australia hosted an international symposium, “Water: Histories, Cultures, Ecologies,” inviting an interdisciplinary group of participants to provide perspectives on the use (and abuse) of water, its cultural and aesthetic as well as economic value, and the ways in which nations are dealing with issues of scarcity and allocation. The fifteen chapters in this volume consist of papers presented at the symposium. The editors have organized the chapters into three sections: "Water through Time," "Confluences and Divergences," and "Ecologies and Politics of Water Resources." Six chapters deal with water in Australia; the other eight discuss water in the western United States, Syria, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Israel, Africa, and South America. Several chapters are comparative studies that find commonalities and contrasts in different cultures. There is enough diversity in the presentations to attract anyone concerned about water issues on a global scale. And, of course, much more could be discussed about water in Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe, but that would call for another international symposium.

Donald Worster of the University of Kansas leads off in an exploration of John Wesley Powell’s ideas in the late nineteenth century for a systematic organization of the American West along its watersheds. The nation ignored Powell’s jeremiad, instead establishing federal bureaucracies that built dams, lots of them. The dams have damaged the environment, and the bureaucracy deprived the people of a voice in how the nation’s rivers and lakes would be used. Powell has acquired a new relevance as people are becoming increasingly aware that water is too precious a resource to be left to politicians and bureaucrats whose policies have misused the West’s water resources.

In the first of the presentations dealing with Australia, Andrea Gaynor and Jane Davis of the University of Western Australia acknowledge the construction of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme, built in 1898-1903, as an engineering success. However, they question many of the claims that it improved what had been a poor quality of life at Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie in Western Australia. Prior to the arrival of the plentiful water supply in 1903, men and women had adapted, to a large degree, to an environment of scarce water. Some of the problems they endured, such as dust, were caused in part by mining and deforestation in the region. The question remains whether the residents, having grown accustomed to water scarcity, needed the surplus. Addressing another part of the world, Marnie Laybourne discusses the impact of modern technology and a centralizing government on the Bedouin tribes of Syria. Rather than accept outside regulation, the Bedouin have made use of tractors and trucks, and adapted to changing conditions of water availability to continue their traditional lifestyle.

Philip Taylor of Australian National University describes the transition in Vietnam from a water-based to a land-based transportation network. For centuries, the Mekong River was the main source for connecting villages and towns, but roads have had a major impact on the country’s economic development as well as on social and cultural influences. Joe Powell, a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia, rounds out the first section on “Water through Time” by tracing the history of water management and storage schemes in Australia from colonial times to the present. Australian colonists initially imposed wishful thinking on water resources, such as believing in the nonexistent “Inland Sea.” Following grand construction projects in the twentieth century, Australians have become more aware of the environmental consequences in undertaking water projects in arid and semiarid regions.

In the “Confluences and Divergences” section, Veronica Strong of the University of Aukland compares and contrasts traditional water use among indigenous people in Northern Australia and the community of Dorest in southern England. Despite obviously vast cultural differences, these two places share commonalities in seeing water as a concept of order in health, religious faith, and economic systems. Sara Ahmed, currently serving on the National Steering Committee of the Global Environmental Facility’s Small Grants Program in India, discusses how water can be a source of gender contention in India where technocrats planning dams and water supply systems ignore the involvement of women in providing water (usually collecting it at some distance) for their families. Women in the village of Neswad successfully outmaneuvered plans for a pipeline and overhead tank by waterworks planners until the scheme was modified to provide greater employment opportunities and less drudgery for women.

Terje Oestigaard of the University of Bergen, Norway, examines uses of water in Christianity’s medieval Europe, Buddhism in Nepal, and Hinduism in India and Bangladesh. In these societies, water and fire represent life and death, baptism and cremation, and water is a resource all recognize as necessary for existence. In another comparative presentation, Namika Raby of the University of California, San Diego, discusses the importance of community values in determining control of water management in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and California’s Imperial Valley. These areas, though widely different in culture, share the same concerns of water scarcity and equitable allotment. Len Collard of Murdoch University concludes this section by relating stories told by the Nyungar people of Western Australia about the Waakon, or Nyungar Rainbow Serpent, their Creator. The stories tell of the carpet water snake and how it formed rivers and terrain, and how it must be respected as the giver of life, the keeper of freshwater sources.

Walter Cox, chairman of the Environmental Protection Authority in Western Australia, starts the final section, “Ecologies and Politics of Water Resources,” by examining the institutional framework for water resource allocation in Western Australia and the emergence of sustainability as a crucial issue in water management issues. He considers the problem of inadequate resources in planning that includes environmental, economic, and social values. Andrew Storey, an expert on aquatic ecology, and Kerry Traylor of the Department of Environment in Australia, examine the inclusion of environmental factors in the development of the Ord River in Western Australia. The Department of Environment has used environmental studies to determine the water needs for fish and wildlife, as well as for people and economic growth. Michael Beyth of Israel’s Ministry of National Infrastructures discusses challenges and opportunities for water resource conservation and development in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Water scarcity requires the use of manufactured water through desalination and recycling, mariculture (using seawater for agriculture), and other sustainable policies.

John M. Melack of the University of California, Santa Barbara, examines aquatic biodiversity in freshwater lakes and rivers in such areas as Lake Victoria, the Laurentian Great Lakes, and Lake Baikal. The number of species in these lakes varies considerably and is affected by acidification, introduction of exotic species, and increasing salinity, as in the case of California’s Mono Lake. In the final chapter, Paul E. Little of the University of Brasilia discusses issues regarding fishing in the Amazon River floodplains and the organizing of ribeirinhos, local river dwellers, to resist commercial fishing exploitation. Since the 1970s and the increasing demand for fish by growing populations in Amazonia urban centers, such organizations as fishing councils and nongovernmental agencies have fought for local control with alliances to environmental groups.

The above capsule summaries indicate the diversity of both the contributors and their topics. Readers of this book will find that experts in academic and nongovernmental organizations are making water issues a truly global concern. The contributors generally include endnote documentation, and several provide tables and charts. None of the contributors presents their work from an ivory tower, as the brief biographies demonstrate that many of them have done field research and actively participate in organizations concerned with water issues. Teachers of courses on the environment will find this book helpful in making students aware of the many ways that societies view water and its necessity for survival. Notably absent, however, at least from this book, are the views of government bureaucrats who make policies (dam building, flood control, hydroelectric power) concerning water in nations around the world. Clearly, this book demonstrates that there is plenty of room for more symposiums involving many nations, and the participation of policymakers who should defend (or rationalize) the decisions they make about water.

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Citation: Abraham Hoffman. Review of Leybourne, Marnie; Gaynor, Andrea, eds., Water: Histories, Cultures, Ecologies. H-Water, H-Net Reviews. March, 2009.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24268

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