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>Invented by the region's Moorish rulers 1,200 years ago I have no problem with stating that it was built, or implemented by Moorish rulers. I have a problem

>Invented by the region's Moorish rulers 1,200 years ago I have no problem with stating that it was built, or implemented by Moorish rulers. I have a problem with 'invented'. Waterways specifically for irrigation, in near-identical (and many better) designs have been around significantly longer than 1,200 years. The Romans, Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Incas, Mayans, and so on. Go to central Arizona in the USA to see about 700 miles of irrigation canals built by the Hohokams. Or, check out the Assyrians' inverted siphon for the Nineveh Aqueducts.

oh_sigh 5y ago
Maybe "invented" is in relation to the specific social system designed around the irrigation regulating water distribution fairness. It sounds much better than the system where I live(Colorado), which is "first in time, first in right", meaning the first person to use water from a river gets to claim whatever water they use as their own for eternity, meaning anyone else who comes along later can't have any water at all until the senior rights holder gets their fill.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  New Mexico has the same "first in time, first in right" law, sadly imposed by Americans when it became a state, and mostly (but not entirely) replacing the acequia system here that is (for obvious reasons) extremely similar to the one in TFA. The FIT/FIR system is not going to survive. Of this, I am certain. It's a concept based on mistaken ideas about the amount of water in the American southwest, in turn based on a particularly wet couple of decades at the turn of the 20th century. If the current drought continues, or at some other point in the future, the implicit farming-centric nature of FIT/FIR is going to clash with the desires of these states' growing populations. Farming is not going to win (by farming, I mean large scale industrial production, mostly for export).

oh_sigh 5y ago

Maybe "invented" is in relation to the specific social system designed around the irrigation regulating water distribution fairness. It sounds much better than the system where I live(Colorado), which is "first in time, first in right", meaning the first person to use water from a river gets to claim whatever water they use as their own for eternity, meaning anyone else who comes along later can't have any water at all until the senior rights holder gets their fill.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
New Mexico has the same "first in time, first in right" law, sadly imposed by Americans when it became a state, and mostly (but not entirely) replacing the acequia system here that is (for obvious reasons) extremely similar to the one in TFA. The FIT/FIR system is not going to survive. Of this, I am certain. It's a concept based on mistaken ideas about the amount of water in the American southwest, in turn based on a particularly wet couple of decades at the turn of the 20th century. If the current drought continues, or at some other point in the future, the implicit farming-centric nature of FIT/FIR is going to clash with the desires of these states' growing populations. Farming is not going to win (by farming, I mean large scale industrial production, mostly for export).