Hoover's unsustainable century
- USA, November 24, 1922. The Hoover Commitment was signed and the commission was created to build a dam along the Colorado River, on the border of the states of Arizona and Nevada. The pharaonic work of the Hoover dam was the beginning of a water management model that ended in 1936 and spread in the twentieth century.
Every year, when snow in the Rocky Mountains of the United States melted, the Colorado River overflowed, endangering the area’s crops. In addition to preventing flooding, a dam would expand irrigation in arid areas, supply water to other communities in Los Angeles and Southern California, produce electricity… With this idea, the Hoover commitment was signed in 1922 to make dam.
The prey was initially named Boulder, but in the negotiations was Trade Secretary Herbert Hoover, who would later be President of the United States, who finally, like the convention, called Hoover.
President Coolidge, six years later, in 1928, legally accepted the project, but the official authorization to start construction works was obtained in 1930, presided over by Hoover, ignoring the crisis that broke out the previous year or, in a way, under the excuse of the Great Depression, arguing that these works would alleviate the situation. Thus, in 1933 another giant hydraulic project was launched and the Tennessee Valley Authority was created to exploit the waters of the river of the same name.
Boccaletti considers that the history of water is not technological, but political, although the model that has spread in the twentieth century has a technological base.
The pharaonic work of the Hoover dam was completed in 1936 with 3.33 million m³ of concrete and 49 million dollars (approximately 900 million today).
But perhaps the adjective “Pharaonic” is not the most appropriate to speak of the Hoover dam; although the Egyptians used the fluctuations of the Nile River, current water management policies have their origin in ancient Rome. This is what Water says by researcher Giulio Boccaletti. A Biography (Water. A biography) in a paper that gathers the history of water management.
Boccaletti considers that the history of water is not technological, but political, although the model that has spread in the twentieth century has a technological base. This model, based on major engineering projects, was born in the United States through Hoover and Tennessee and spread throughout the world. From Boccalet it is known as the “hydraulic century” in the last hundred years.
He believes that this paradigm is about to run out and that the future model can come from China. The researcher states that the water management system remains unknown, but it is clear that the path opened 100 years ago by the Hoover dam is not sustainable.
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