HIST 100: Engineering The Past

Water Woes

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If I could travel back in time and advise a country in the Middle East on their water management I would choose Syria. Constant water problems have plagued this country since the first documented water war that occurred in Syria at the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. An argument could also be made that the civil war occurring in Syria can be attributed to water problems in the country. My advise to the Syria would first be to stop depleting their freshwater aquifers. Groundwater is a renewable resource, but takes time to recharge their supply of freshwater. My next advice to Syria would be to create a system of recycling wastewater. Rather than relying on aquifers, the people of Syria should focus on recycling their wasted water to lessen the burden on their surrounding watershed and groundwater. Syria relies heavily on water coming from the Euphrates River and its tributaries; with increasing urbanization and high population growth the pressure has greatly increased the pressure on water resources. Resulting in over-pumping of groundwater that has led to pollution in many aquifers in the country. Syria has focused on more efficient irrigation systems and wastewater treatment plants, but has placed these as a higher priority than supply management. In the U.S. many states have committees dedicated to monitoring the water levels of aquifers and constantly check the quality of water to ensure over-pumping is limited. A committee such as this would benefit greatly for Syria. Currently, Syria is in a civil war and although their water problem will not disappear I believe the government has bigger tasks on making their country more stable. The ideas may have worth to the leaders of Syria, but at this time I doubt any action would be taken.

 

To better understand the problem facing Syria and creating a positive solution would require more information. I would focus on finding policies Syria implemented over the years in regards to water management. I would also look into Syria’s conflicts that are attributed to water scarcity and see what is sparking these uprisings. Another piece of crucial information would be analyzing the technologies that Syria has used to combat groundwater depletion and water scarcity. I believe I could find a majority of this information through Boise State’s online database and if further searching is needed I would use the National Archives to find primary sources.

1880s and 1890s cultural tensions

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Throughout what I’ve read thus far, I think the turmoil and grief engulfing Chicago and the rest of the United States can be traced back to the declining global economy. Whenever there is economic decrease, crime breaks out as people lose what they once had and can’t afford to feed themselves or their families. The collapse in economy shows movement towards a different way of running things and the World Fair in Chicago is an opportunity to bring revenue to the city and help improve the economy of the city through tourism and attracting thousands of people from around the world as Burnham and Root try to best the prior world’s fair in Paris. As the project begins its construction, problems arise as builders contract out labor jobs to foreigners for cheaper labor which causes riots with union workers along with mysterious disappearances that start popping up as crime levels increase in the city. The final lines of chapter 10 seemed to show how the intertwined stories of both Burnham and Holmes are important because Larson compares Chicago and Holmes by saying that neither wastes anything. This seems to be foreshadowing the next two chapters by expressing Holmes obsession with his soundproof basement and “glass” kiln in which will indefinitely be used to dispose of the bodies of everyone he kills. As crime increases, Chicago and Holmes “waste” many lives during this period.