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Societies and their Social and Cultural Connections with Water

Drinking, cooking, and washing are basic uses for water. When a community’s lifestyle is simple, water uses are limited. When a society’s lifestyle becomes complex, water uses increase, particularly in urban, industrial and agricultural areas. Hence, an understanding of traditional and non- traditional water uses is necessary to be able to develop a management strategy for sustainable use of lakes and reservoirs.

During the middle of the 19th century, the industrial revolution enabled many cities to install two types of water infrastructure: sewage systems and water supply systems. Public health in the urban environment was drastically improved by these systems. Following the industrial revolution, political change in many societies led people to develop a public health consciousness and a scientific approach to solve public health problems and, later, environmental problems.

Perceptions about the utility of water bodies differ according to the nature of the relationships of people with water. While lakeshore communities are directly and psychologically involved in the well-being of a water body, communities higher in the watershed may not perceive the impact of their activities on downstream water bodies with the same seriousness.

An understanding of the social and cultural aspects of water use in different societies is important for decision-makers and managers and will be helpful in planning public awareness programs and a greater involvement of citizens in the management of water. Religious influences on water-related practices, such as clean water acquisition and sanitation, affect the use of water by different societies. These practices are rooted in past eras but strongly affect present water-related culture.

The role of water in religion

Religions have rituals and practices pertinent to use of water or the worship of water-associated gods.

In the Islamic religion, the Koran states that “water is what everything is made of including manE In Islamic societies water is used for washing before praying and is considered precious for all living things. In Christian societies in Europe, North America, South America and Asia, water plays an important role in the rite of baptism. The rite does not require a large amount of water, but high purity of water is important.

The Hindu religion emphasizes the importance of water in religious services. Among various rites, ablution is essential for praying to gods and goddesses; water use for ablution is much larger than that in the Islamic rite. Requirements for water in religious rites in Buddhism are similar to those of Hindu. Confucianism and Taoism were more influential religions than Buddhism and other religions in China and Korea in the past, and these two religions do not specifically require water in religious rites. Japanese Shintoism always requires clean and clear water in front of shrines.

Although good water quality is required for many religious practices there is, in general, no focus on the need to maintain clean water through appropriate behavior within the watershed. Hence, it is important for the water managers to directly or indirectly emphasize that a “clean water cultureEshould be developed or strengthened. This should reflect the community’s behavior towards water bodies and the possibilities of reducing their degradation.

Water supply and waste water

European societies, in spite of having safe public water supplies, have developed the custom of drinking bottled water. The drinking of bottled water is a cultural phenomenon, not a public health measure. In North America, provision of safe water supplies has been solved using approaches similar to those in Europe. However, using bottled water for drinking in the USA is not as popular as in many countries in Europe and in Mexico. This costly custom solves only the problem of safe drinking water; it does not solve all the problems of public health or the aquatic environment.

Wastewater technology has not been universally introduced in African countries due to several factors including finances, human resources, and environmental education of the public. Unhealthy habits in some countries result in fecal contamination and eutrophication of water bodies.

The Indian subcontinent embraces many ethnic groups, and while clean water is important to many, limited attention is paid to wastewater discharge. One Hindu social practice is that only people of the lowest caste handle human wastes. In such case (or example), it may be difficult to solve problems of water pollution when the whole society may not confront the fate of their wastes. Such general indifference occurs not only in Indian society but in many societies around the world.

Agriculture and land use practices

The Chinese civilization is unique when compared to other civilizations in terms of use of human waste for agriculture. The Chinese people used human wastes as fertilizer from their early stages of civilization, while others, such as the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indus civilizations, developed the practice of animal dung use as fertilizer. The use of human waste as fertilizer in northern and southern parts of China helped to increase crop yields. The use of human waste in agriculture provided positive, as well as negative, effects on the environment. While the practice reduced eutrophication of lakes and reservoirs in the past, it contaminated agricultural food with microbes and parasites.

Japan adopted the Chinese agricultural practice of using human waste as a fertilizer. When western civilization was introduced to Japan in the middle of the 19th century, because of the loss of human waste as a resource, there was a strong opposition from the agricultural sector against installation of sewage pipes in urban areas. The introduction of chemical fertilisers to Japanese agriculture reduced the traditional use of human waste. Nevertheless, the separation of the faeces from urine in human wastes, so that ammonia can be used as a fertiliser in agriculture, is still practiced. While this procedure could be acceptable in some societies, for others it would be unacceptable due to religious or cultural beliefs.

In Africa, leading causes of eutrophication include deforestation, overgrazing, inadequate solid and sewage waste treatment, industrial effluents, and non-point pollution from urban and rural areas. Assessments of indigenous knowledge systems for resource management, such as agro-forestry practices and land tenure, have revealed that farming practices have traditionally taken diverse forms. In contrast, recent cultivation of single crops, that promote erosion, is partially a consequence of colonial and postcolonial intervention to the extent that these agricultural policies repressed the original diversity in traditional farming techniques.

Aquaculture

Aquaculture has been practised for many years in Southeast Asia, China and Japan. Today, due to the rapid population growth and the need for protein for human consumption intensive aquaculture has been increased and spread to many developing countries. This situation has resulted not only in changes in food production but also in the degradation of many freshwater bodies because of eutrophication from nutrients in the food provided to the fish or shrimp.

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