Whatever happened to Ur?

It sounds like a hesitation. It was the ancient city from which the patriarch Abraham originated. It is also provides a fascinating lesson in water use, that is becoming highly relevant today.

Fresh water is a vital resource. The earliest Mesopotamiam city states, with names like Ur and Uruk, took their water from the hills and put it on their fields. This water was rich in minerals and the absence of any proper drainage system led, over hundreds of years, to a build up of salts in the fields. During the third millenium BC poets spoke of the ‘whiteness of the fields’ and they switched from growing wheat to the more salt tolerant barley. As time went on the fields grew less and less productive, the people worked them harder and harder for less and less reward. The cities were finally abandoned by the 17th century BC.

This story is told by Carolyn Steel in Hungry City, an extraordinary exposition of cities and their relationship with food. She describes this as a one-way civilisation. They took the water and put it on the fields, but had little feeling for the ecosystem of which it was all a part. It shows how crucial water supplies are to life.

We may presume on water in the UK, but in SE Australia just now it is a crucial issue. Rainfall has been extraordinarily low in over the last few years. Temperatures have also been very high, causing an increase in evaporation. The whole region relies on waters from the Murray-Darling river basin and inflows over the last three years are dramatically lower than ever measured before. The level of water in some of the lower lakes in the system is now actually below sea level. The government has announced that it is to buy back irrigation rights so as to protect the water supply. What water is left is earmarked for critical human needs. Such low water levels may produce algal blooms, or excessive salination or adification of the remaining water. Some have even suggested letting sea water in. Climate change and the oscillations in ocean currents called El Nino and La Nina are in the frame as potential causes of this drought.

Will SE Australia go the way of Ur? Who knows but one thing is sure, water is shaping up to be a major resource issue of the twenty first century.

Alan Mann has summarised the global situation for us in his wiki piece Water Wars

Suggested Task: Write on water

Do you know somewhere in the world where water is an issue. Write a piece about it for our wiki.

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