3. THE DESCRIPTION
3.1 Human Beings
A society is a group of human beings who have the same needs. The members of the society cannot live their lives without having the group. Individuals needs to add himself the
group for the purposes of livings. One individual cannot live his lif by himself. The members of the group must have the mutual assistance. The first thing that required by the individual to
have the group is a language. It cannot be denied that without the present of a language to the members of the group will be impossible to have the society. It will be the same thing to the
function of the water to the individual of the human beings. Without the present of water to the human beings they cannot escaped from death.
The fact that the surface of the earth is chiefly water is something which we, as dwellers on the land, are apt to ignore or completely forget. As noted earlier, the Pacific
Ocean alone covers nearly one-third of the globe. The combined areas of all water bodies, including oceans, seas, and lakes, add up to nearly two and one half times that of all the land
of the earth. In other words, about seventy one per cent of the earth’s surface is water. In addition to the large expanses just mentioned, there are small ponds, waters which run as
streams on the top of the land, and other waters which lie or move within the upper portion of the earth’s crust. There is water in vapor form and in condensed form in the atmosphere.
Thus, water is an important and practically all-pervasive element in human beings’ habitat. Water is fundamentally important for drinking purposes. Town and city dwellers,
accustomed to obtaining drinking water by the mere turning of a faucet handle, are generally unaware of the amount they use and cannot fully appreciate this type of water use. However,
countless millions of persons who live in the world’s rural areas and have to spend much time
in carrying water from a spring or stream, or pumping or lifting it from a well, know its significance frilly. Most aware are those who live in steppes and deserts, where drinking
water is most precious because it is most scarce. Other home, or domestic, uses of water are many: for cooking, washing, bathing, and for lawn and garden. On the farm, the daily
consumption of water, per capita, ranges from in to o gallons. This does not include many more gallons used by farm animals. A milk cow, for example, consumes about 50 litres each
day. In the city, the quantity of water used is far greater. One can appreciate the problem of ordinary domestic water supply in a city of several million persons, particularly in those cities
which have outgrown their local supplies and must send many miles away for the bulk of their water.
In the country of Indonesia which has thousands of islands or it can be said about 40 per cent of all water used is used for irrigation. Currently, this amounts to about 100 billion
gallons per day. Figure out how many gallons this means each year. Indonesia has two great aqueducts which reach out across hills, deserts, and
mountains for about 300 miles. So dependent is Indonesia is that major abandonment would quickly follow if the water supply were stopped. Other large urban centers, even those in
more humid regions, are only slightly less dependent. In town or city wherever manufacturing and processing are going on, there is
demand for water far in excess of domestic requirements. Water is needed to wash materials, to add to materials and goods, to flush sewage, to make steam in boilers, to cool or air-
condition equipment and buildings, and to serve many other purposes. Jakarta alone is said to use from one billion to two billion gallons of water each day, the larger portion being used
outside of the home. Just to supply. Jakarta with water is a gigantic business in itself. Particularly in the dry regions, man needs water for other than drinking and
household uses. He needs water for stock and still more where his economy depends on the
production of irrigated crops. Irrigation water may come from shallow or deep wells, from springs, from rivers, or it may be imported over long distances by means of ditches and pipes.
The amount of water available largely determines the size and importance of any region’s development.
The following short discussion suggests some of the aspects of change wrought in the economy of a small segment of the landscape of the introduction of adequate water
supply to an area of meager precipitation and scant and intermittent surface water. Until fairly recent years, most of the North Sulawesi appeared to all who saw it as
merely another dry-land waste with little apparent economic use, even as seasonal grazing land.
It was not until nearly two decades after became a state, and other neighboring areas had been largely settled, that individuals first came into the any idea of taking up lands and
establishing permanent settlements. By then, a meager water supply had been found in a few shallow, dug wells. With such small promise of water for man and animals, the initial settlers
moved into the valley in 1867 and established the first small and feeble beginnings of the thriving economy of the valley today. Today more wells producing water for domestic and
animal uses, the economic fortunes of the valleys had improved considerably. But during the dry seasons the valley experienced a nearly total drought and all dry-farmed crops failed
completely. Considered in retrospect, this catastrophe was a blessing in disguise, for out of it came .the introduction of irrigation. Irrigation was first practiced in very simple form, using
water from dug wells, but slowly increasing demands for irrigation water eventually brought about the necessary developments of deep, drilled wells and large power pumps.
Many kinds of irrigated crops, from grains to tree fruits, were experimented with through the early years of the present century. But commercial vegetable production, first
introduced in the mid-twenties, expanded phenomenally until by 1930 it outranked all other
crops combined. By this time, it utilized most of the valley’s irrigated acreage and accounted for most of the commercial income. The expansive trend of commercial vegetable agriculture
has continued unabated to the present time, keeping pace with the increasing availability of water supply, as more and more deep, drilled wells have tapped the invisible underground
water. Thus, with successive increases in water supply during the past few decades, the
economic fortunes of the valleys have been reassessed many times. Each stage has been more elaborate than its predecessor, and each stage has also been far more economically productive
and financially profitable than the stage before. Land-use adjustments have been implemented almost continuously, until they have become practically a way of life and an
economic creed. They have brought this once nearly barren land to an extremely high state of productivity, a productivity based upon an ever-expanding irrigation system and a
commercial specialty foodstuff production with large surpluses for export to national markets.
It should he pointed out, too, that the use of water for irrigation is not restricted to regions deficient in precipitation. Near large cities in humid lands great amounts are used to
encourage a rapid and certain growth of truck crops for urban markets. In the extensive and humid rice-lands of the Orient, the wet-land or paddy rice requires untold billions of gallons
of slowly circulating irrigation water throughout the season of growth, even in those parts of the rainy tropics which receive very heavy precipitation.
Since primitive man first made a raft or hollowed out a log canoe, water has served as a highway, a highway built and maintained by nature and so buoyant that carriers using it
can support and move burdens far greater than can be supported in land or air vehicles. To this day, despite auto trucks, freight trains, and cargo planes, many of the world’s water
toads, whether the Rhine river or the North Atlantic, continue to be vital links in transportation.
Modern men are becoming increasingly aware of the resources contained in the many waters of the world. From the seas and oceans come foods in the form of fish, plants,
and other marine life. Many persons believe that the world will become more and more dependent on food from the oceans as population increases and as much of the land is worn
out by continued crop production. Seaweed, in addition to furnishing food, provides potash and iodine as well as stuffing for cushions and mattresses. Salt water furnishes salt and,
recently, has furnished large quantities of magnesium. It is even a possible large-scale source of an additional fresh water supply, since saltwater conversion processes have been perfected.
The sea contributes other materials also, from furs and hides to pearls and sponges. Similarly, many fresh waters also provide fish, shells, and furs.
Whether seashore, tree-lined brook or river, small pond, or large lake, water is useful to swim in, to go boating and fishing on, or just to look at. Many a small lake has proved to
be a “gold mine” when developed for resort purposes, and many a piece of land has sold for a sum far above ordinary market price merely because it contained a bubbling spring or a small
stream. Even the little lily ponds or artificial lagoons in a city park reflect the artistic and the recreational value of water.
3.2 Oceans and Seas
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