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Springs are symbolic of the sustainability of life on earth. Since the earliest times flowing springs have been held as sacred and as a subject of awe and fascination. Subterranean water is identified in the creation myths on Babylonian tablets, where waters above the earth are separated from the ‘water of the deep’. The persistence of these creation myths is still reflected in the Arabic word ain or ayun, which has the double meaning of spring and eye (Issar 1991). Springs were the eyes of the gods. Springs (or fountains) were the focal point of many events in the Bible and other religious texts, and were the subject of veneration, as in Psalm 104: 10, ‘He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills Modern scientific understanding of the origins of spring flow dates from the seventeenth century. The earliest explanations of the hydrological cycle, often termed the reversed hydrological cycle, probably stem from biblical sources (Ecclesiastes 1: 7). The unexplained constancy of the ocean volume was accounted for by the return of seawater through the rocks, which then purified them and returned the water to the surface as freshwater rivers and springs. This interpretation of the hydrological cycle persisted through the writings of ancient Greece and Rome as in Seneca’s Quaestiones Naturales and into the Middle Ages (Tuan 1968) until correctly explained by Edmond Halley(Halley 1691). In modern society spring waters are valued highly because they still embody an element of mystery and bring us face to face with the subsurface expression of the hydrological cycle or ‘groundwater’. There is also traditional belief that spring waters represent a source of perennial pure water. The properties of pure spring water command a high market value and in a world where tap water is (often wrongly) perceived as something less pure, the bottled water image-makers seek after evidence of the purity, longevity, and healing properties of the spring, with a zeal that echoes the reverence accorded to spring waters by early philosophers. The objective of this chapter is to explore the reasons for the decline of natural springs and the fragility of groundwater resources in general. |
