Always water has been one precious and indispensable resource for man’s life and for all the living. Only where’s water there’s life in the well-know universe.
In order to understand the importance of the water it must in fact think that the living, we all included, are in great part composed by water. The primitive living are formed by small cells, sluices within a membrane, in which the percentage of water is beyond 98%; the first animals have been probably similar at modern "jelly-fishes", whose composition is approximately 95% of water. The plants have also they a high percentage of water in their composition (in average 80%) and the animals that have a skeleton (and also the man) have one medium composition in which the water is approximately 70%.
In the primitive culture water considered the feminine principle of the fertility. And to demonstration of the deep importance of the water on the life, in the ancient culture of the Magna Greece one thought that protect sources and streams’ water, divinities lived there at the aim to give back it pure and drinkable; to such original tradition the Christian Baptism sacrament belongs also, water for which assumed a different religious meant of purification. The manifestations associated to the water sacrality and therefore to the mystery that closely correlates it to the life, are many all over the world and in all ancient and recent cultures. Unfortunately, nowadays, often we have forgotten lost memory of their ancient ritual and propitiatory meant, that generated a respect for the water and its decisive importance for the life. Still today, as an example, it is in use to throw in Trevi Fountain in Rome coins in the water thinking that it carries fortune and auguries, but has forgotten that such propitiatory gesture laughed them to one born tradition to ingratiate themselves the favours of the Fountain’s protecting divinity for the gift and the prosperity of the life.

For Talete from Mileto all the things principle (in Greek archè) is the water. Perhaps, according to Aristotle, Talete gained this conviction stating: the nutriment of all things is humid, seeds of all things have humid nature, water is the humid things natural principle. Still says to us Aristotle, Talete supported also that the Earth rests on the water. The Earth, therefore, found and support all the things. Aristotle did not possess precise information about Talete’s doctrine. What he tell us has the value of a supposition, even if reliable. It’s probable that Talete reached the conclusion that the water is principle of the nature on the base of elementary reasoning: without water there isn’t life, therefore at the water all the things are bringing back.
The tests listed by Aristotle are drawn arguments from biological and physicist circle which Talete would have reached through direct observation of the nature and by means of obtained tests. In all probability, Talete was moved also from considerations of practical order: he studied the effects of the Nilo’s plants and was influenced from the inhabitants of Mileto duffle-coat tradition and from the Egyptians and Mesopotamic fluvial cultures, than they pushed to see in the water the indispensable element for the man survival. One tells that his dead have happened for the warmth and silks while he assisted to one gimmick contest.
The water, composed of two atoms of Hydrogen and one of Oxygen, is chemically defined from formula H2O, but such scientific acquaintance still very little says to us on the mysteries that correlate water to the life.
Some phenomena show us the water like an element still mysterious, through the most famous is the rhabdomancy, an ancient divinatory technique in order to try water sources basements, that it consists in localizing, normally through the vibrations of a staple of wood held in the hands of the rhabdomancer (from the Greek rabdos=stick), the areas where water in the underground slides. Precisely nobody it still knows how functions the rhabdomancy; Albert Einstein thought the rhabdomancer was persons particularly sensitive to weak variations of electromagnetic field coming from the underground water course.
During the last decade, water has been highly charged question within the political, economic/social and humanitarian fields. Political, because rivers ignore political boundaries and a shortage of water can be a pressing challenge to national security. Economical, because of urban growth and the increasing demands on freshwater within the agricultural and industrial sectors. Humanitarian, as water is critical to humanity’s basic survival and may mean the difference between life and death for poor populations and is further aggravated by unpredicted ecological emergencies. Even if there is no shortage of water, the supply and access to freshwater, in particular potable water, is sometimes limited.
Water resources go mostly to agriculture, mining, manufacturing and urban services. The use of water to meet basic human needs represents only a tiny fraction of total of the total consumption, being about 1-2 per cent. However, and as indicated earlier, the supply of freshwater (and potable water) has the potential to become a highly precarious issue. Therefore, present-day societies must act decisively and see existing resources as means of support to economic and social development. Although there is a clear awareness concerning ongoing pollution, its effect on the environment in general and the excessive use of water, much more has to be done, particularly within technical fields.
During the last few decades, environmentalists have forcefully called for protection of existing fresh water resources. As a result, several international and national environmental and health laws are now in place, which demand, among other things that industrial and urban waste water must be purified before being returned to nature and that the usage and dispersal of fertilizers within the agricultural sector must be limited or non-polluting. In addition, there is still an increasing demand for potable water as ít is basic necessity for a growing population.
 

 Last updated 21/09/2003 19.39