Page 5 - Water Sustainability

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UNIT 1 Why WATer MATTers

Governments can work to positively impact water use to pro-
mote sustainability on a global scale. Recognizing your own

relationship with water can help you make choices to positively
impact water use on a personal level.

Access to fresh drinking water is vital to sustainability.

1.2 History, Civilization, and Water

Water has been central to humanity long before people orga-
nized themselves into towns and cities. A widespread creation
story that recounts the origin of life and of people from water
is supported by modern scientific understanding of the begin-

nings of life on Earth. Prehistoric humans relied on freshwater
and saltwater resources to provide drinking water and food.
They often survived by hunting migratory animals that fol-
lowed seasonal water resources across the landscape.

The first large-scale permanent settlements grew around

important rivers: Mesopotamia around the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers, Egypt around the Nile, China around the
Yellow River, and India around the Indus River.

These rivers flooded their banks seasonally, providing life-
giving water and nutrients to the surrounding floodplain.

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