Delhi heritage--top 10 baolis, foreword by Sohail Hashmi

All ancient civilizations, those that graduated from hunting and gathering to settled agriculture, had developed methods of harnessing water for agriculture and for daily consumption. Each civilization adapted to the peculiarities of their climatic conditions, the terrain they inhabited, the seasonality of precipitation, and developed techniques that were best suited to their conditions.

In different parts of the world from the heights of Andes where the Incas lived to southern Mexico, Guatemala, Northern Belize, and Western Honduras inhabited by the Mayas, from the flood-prone plains of the Nile in Egypt to the lands inhabited by the Assyrians, the Sumerians, the Romans, the Chinese, and other ancient civilizations, there were as many solutions to problems of seasonal plenty and scarcity, even excess and flooding, or paucity and absence of water that were unique to each society.

In India, during the times about which we do not know enough, there were those who settled in the Indus Valley and whose settlements gradually grew into towns and cities. It were these people who developed a network of drains, some open while some underground, to carry water to all parts of the city. They also built large public baths, and we are still trying to understand how the entire system worked.