This week's flooding in Missouri is just the latest saga in man's long, stormy love affair with rivers. Ever since early humans spread across the globe, we have been building camps, towns and cities along these streams, vital channels of water, food and navigation. But more than providing this inate utility, rivers touch something in our souls; despite their power, they evoke a sense of tranquility and we want to live near them.
So we have attempted to control rivers through our use of dams, levees and dredged channels. Confident of our mastery, we have built towns and cities on their floodplains, somehow ignoring how those flat valleys came to be. At the same time, we have destroyed most of the wetlands that once absorbed the seasonal flooding which now ravages our riverside communities.
The Great Midwest Flood of 1993 served notice that we have a limited (and temporary) ability to harness the power of rivers. The sooner we accept this fact, the sooner we'll take a more reasonable approach to floodplain "development." Restoring the wetlands would be a good start!
