History of Water Control

Since the beginning of time, humans have been trying to control water for a number of reasons, including drainage and irrigation, water purification, heating and cooling, safety and many other reasons. Water control has had to been engineered, controlled and conscientiously thought of. Much planning over the years has gone into the effective controlling of water.

The Incas - harnessing water

The society of the Inca Empire was centered in what is now Peru, from 1438 BC to 1533 AD. The Incas had built extensive agricultural cultivation and irrigation systems that still work today.

In Spanish, the stepped agricultural "systems" are called "andinas", which comes from the word Andes. The name of the mountains that stretch from Venezuela through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, then further down to Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

The Incan society was predominantly an agricultural society; the Incas took advantage of the soil, overcoming the adversities of the surrounding terrain and the weather.

The majority of their agricultural terraces are built on the sides of mountains and hills. The Incas planted a diverse selection of crops.

Inca farmers had to deal with the difficult terrain of the Andes. Most of the usable land was mainly limited to the narrow valleys carved by rivers between the mountains. Additional flat terrain was available on the plateaus, but their high altitude and cold weather severely limited their usefulness for farming. To expand the available land, the Incas used several Andean techniques which made it possible to farm on high altitude hillsides; these included the following:

Camellones

These were artificial areas constructed on the banks of lake Titicaca. They consist of mounds of land that were able to store and take greater advantage of the water in places of frequent floods. They used a series of agricultural technologies in the mounds, including: the creation of artificial channels to give protection to the plants, and to facilitate drainage during the rains; floods; irrigation; as sources of credit; and, especially, to diminish the cold at night at these high altitudes, thereby reducing the risk from frosts.

Cochas

In pre-Hispanic times "cochas" or artificial lagoons were created in the punas. They were used for cultivation and to give something for the livestock to drink. These lagoons could be round, elongated or rectangular, and were composed by a great number of symmetrical channels that gather the water of the rains and lead it among the channels.

One reason for the Incas creating stepped agricultural "fields" is the fact that they could better control the amount of water used for the irrigation of the plants. Nevertheless, the stepped agriculture is complex, requires hard work for creation, but ensures food over a long period of time.

In addition to agricultural benefits, another benefit is the protection against floods and landslides. They were structured so that water doesn't accumulate and run down to the towns below. The rocks that they used for creating the steps strengthened the sides of the mountains, thus protecting what is in the valleys from possible mudslides during heavy rainfall.

The Incas had had to cope with floods that could have destroyed their agricultural fields and homes in the valleys. Higher ground protects the plantations from disaster.

During the Incan Empire, the Incan Empire was one of the most agriculturally productive regions in the World. When the Europeans were waiting for more rain to come, the Incas were controlling their environment by irrigation of the terraces, which they did by diverting small quantities of water from mountain rivers.

By doing this , the threat of drought was practically eliminated. Unlike in the case of the Maya civilization, which historians believe may have collapsed partly because of a long period of drought.