GEF

Unit 1  |  Why Water Matters 18 Agricultural settlements, including the earliest cities, arose on these fertile plains. The people of ancient Mesopotamia, called Sumerians, were the first to construct extensive waterworks to store and dis- tribute the seasonal bounty of river flooding. Sumerian culture revolved around manipulation of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers—in modern-day Iraq, Turkey, and Syria—to irrigate farm- ers’ fields. Farmers learned to store and release water through dams, canals, and dikes, channeling life-giving water and nutrients to crops at the proper time. Communities around the world depend on water for daily life. The large-scale irrigated agriculture of the Sumerians provided an obvious advantage over rain-watered farms. People who had some measure of control over erratic rainfall were better able to survive periods of drought that would be devastat- ing to less-organized farmers. Water control, irrigation , and administration transformed the Sumerians and other early civi- lizations by helping to centralize power and economic wealth in each region. The development of irrigated agriculture made it possible to store large agricultural surpluses for later use IRRIGATION The application of water to soil for growing plants.