Water is so important to a nation’s success and survival that it can influence country’s history in a wide variety of ways. Within an ecosystem, all living things depend not only on water, but on each as well. Water is essential for life. One way humans try to control the Earth’s water is to build DAMS. Two thousand years ago, the Chiness sage Lao Tsu wrote: Water is the highest good. The gentlest thing, it overcomes the hardest. It does not discriminate, but nourishes all things.