Water is the foundation of life, and without it, Earth would be just a floating desolate rock. This fundamental fact of biology, intuitively, is not excluded from the domain of humanity. Without water humans cannot live, and thus all civilization—from hunter gatherers to bustling metropolises—is centered around water.

If one looks at the beginnings of human civilization around the world, water is the common focal point amongst their cultures. From the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, the Nile of Egypt, the Indus River Valley of India, or the Yellow River in China, water determined where we originally developed.

Besides the need to drink, these rivers and their floodplains provide soil in which we could reliably produce agriculture. Not only that, but our masonry required water in the form of wet clay. Human civilization isn’t just built around water. Human civilization fundamentally is made of water.

Without water, civilization will quite literally dry up. One can look at examples of the Maya, the Akkadians, or the Tang Dynasty as cautionary tales of running out of water destabilizing societal structures. While also a concerning omen of impending climate change, these historical droughts shine light on the connection between water and political cohesion within civilizations. 

It is no wonder that with the control of water comes power over all men. Thus, naturally, the kings and governments of empires and nations throughout history were the ones who would dictate when and where the water flows—keeping the populace in their dripping wet hands.  

Assyrian kings, one of the originators of the aqueduct, would build their legitimacy and reverence amongst the population by building irrigation for their people. They wanted the populace to remember that the king was responsible for their ability to survive, and without him, civilization would whittle away. Of course, local sources of water for common people were always an option, such as wells or rivers. However, this came at the caveat of restricted freedoms, only the ruling power could alleviate.

The Roman republic assigned government magistrates and specialized groups (known as aediles) that specialized in maintaining the public water infrastructure. The duty of water was solely on the government. Near the end of the republic, the aqueducts had been deteriorating away, representing to the populace the deteriorating control of the Senate over the people.

When Augustus Caesar gained control over Rome after the civil war, the responsibility of water fell to him. One of his first acts as the new emperor of Rome was the reconstruction and rejuvenation of the aqueducts because he knew that letting the water flow back to the people would establish legitimacy of his control. The centralized control of water was levied as a way of catering political favor or used as leverage over key Roman politicians.

As a pop-culture example of water establishing legitimacy can be seen in Mad Max: Fury Road, where Immortan Joe releases the water: “Let there be water!” Perhaps we are destined to fall back into being thralls of some god-king of water. Literally trickle down economics.

The United States has had its own history with drought. The infamous Dust Bowl Drought of the 1930s devastated crops leading to the increasing economic plight of the Great Depression. While dry seasons are naturally occurring, one underlying symptom that increased the severity of the Dust Bowl Drought was the poor use of land. In the decades preceding the disaster, there was a lot of promotion to settle the great plains before the limitations of the climate were understood. The initial settlers lucked out in having many decades of wet climate, causing them to misjudge the extent that they can grow water intensive crops. When the decades of drought hit, their way of life was devastated.

It’s easy to look at the dust bowl calamaty and see similarities all over the modern day United States. My home state of Utah is a salient one. Utah has been one of the faster growing states in the past decade. I, myself, have seen the transformation of large areas of the Great Basin Desert become redeveloped into acres of suburbs. Where there used to be nothing but sagebrush for miles now is now green lawn watered each day.

This development is thanks to Utah’s extensive use of water irrigation supplied by the annual snowfall. However, don’t get confused by the advertisements of snow and skiing too much. Utah is losing water, and with it, its sustainability. In just the past couple of decades, the Great Salt Lake has lost 73% of its surface area. I always find it ironic that the maps of the country depict a lake much larger than it is in the current time. 

The water issues are growing in more than just Utah. Along with, increasing summer heat waves, the underground water aquifers of the country are emptying. The Colorado River, a source of water for many south western states, is quickly becoming a nonviable source. In fact, the majority of people I talk to don’t realize that the Colorado River hasn’t reached the Pacific Ocean since the 1960s due to dams, climate change, and over use for agriculture. Another example where our maps are outdated.

Water ownership is perhaps one of the oldest and most pernicious forms of rent seeking that has existed throughout human history. Coupled with the growing scarcity, those who control the natural monopolies of water will become more and more powerful.

Water is stand out amongst other forms of natural resources as it has a very complicated relationship between state, federal, and private ownership that would take multiple articles to flesh out.

On the matter of natural resources, economist Henry George wrote, 

Wherever the value of natural opportunities becomes great enough to tempt monopoly, the state must step in. —Henry George The Land Question, 1881

It seems intuituve that only the state can effectively control the water due to its ability to equally divy it out and build the infrastructure to do so. However, this comes with potential concern of hostile governing bodies over the control and limitation of water use gains. The most obvious situation in recent times is Trump’s antagonizing of Newsome over the California’s water. Trump has written two different executive orders over the issue of California’s water.

Whether state control of the water or some kind of Georgist inspired “water value tax” is the best end is not for me to say. There are extensive studies to this issue, of which there is much nuance. Much like what we learn from history, the issue of who controls the water and how it is controlled is inherently political.

Perhaps it is necessary that the governing body controls the water, but I worry what the future will hold as water becomes more scarce and difficult to access. The control of water is the control of life, and as those who control the water act hostilely and/or wrecklessly, our livelihoods are in jeopardy.

Water has always and will always be a great political matter. We should keep watch and keep those who control the precious liquid in check, lest our lives and societies evaporate away.