Download or read book Development Trajectories of River Basins written by François Molle and published by IWMI. This book was released on 2003 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of societies is shaped to a large extent by their resources base, notably water resources. Access to and control of water depend primarily on the available technology and engineering feats, such as river-diversion structures, canals, dams and dikes. As growing human pressure on water resources brings actual water use closer to potential ceilings, supply-augmentation options get scarcer, and societies, therefore, usually respond by adopting conservation measures and by reallocating water towards more beneficial uses.