‘Waters’ or ‘Water’? — master narratives in water history and their implications for contemporary water policy

Abstract

While it is sometimes suggested that ‘water’ was regarded as an element prior to the discovery of its compound nature in the 18th century, most premodern understandings of water emphasized the diverse characteristics of many waters. Such views were developed and sustained within several distinct contexts: Aristotelian natural philosophy, classical natural history, folklore and religion, and the promotion of mineral waters. During the 19th century this empiricist view of waters as many was replaced by an essentialist view in which water was a commodity with varying amounts and kinds of undesirable impurities. The continuing importance of these distinct conceptions of water is evident in the competition for public attention and consumer confidence between the bottled water industry, which is predicated on the concept of many unique waters, and the public water industries, which present water as a monolithic commodity. It will be important for water policy makers to be sensitive to a wide range of conceptions of water that retain appeal. Such conceptions may have significant impact on public assessment of water technologies.