Water Technology

The easiest way to obtain freshwater is to tap into streams and rivers. For millennia, humans have been able to also find water in locales devoid of streams or rivers by constructing wells to groundwater sources. By the late 1800s, well technology had evolved to include wind- or steam-powered wells to pump water faster than traditional wells. As inventions, such as the Archimedes screw, were developed, they made it easier to dig wells to previously untouched depths.

Many of the water sources that were being accessed through wells were aquifers, which are pockets of water found in clay or rock formations. These formations can be quite large. For example, the Ogallala Aquifer in the United States underlies the states of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, ...