Digital Guides Thirst: In Search of Freshwater Digital Guides

Thirst: In Search of Freshwater

Exhibition text

Our new exhibition explores humanity’s vital connection with freshwater – an essential source of life and pillar of good health for people and planet.

Digital Guide

The guide contains a highlights tour of the exhibition available with Audio Description (AD) and British Sign Language (BSL).

The guide has 11 stops, each around 5 minutes long, featuring the voice of curators, artists and subject specialists.

Use your phone to scan the QR code or pick up a player and follow the track numbers.

AD can also be accessed using the touch-button audio handsets and headphones provided. For instructions on how to use the handsets, key in 700.

QR codes also provide access to all exhibition texts in screen readable formats.

You can use our WiFi for free. Turn your device’s WiFi on and select 'Wellcome Guest'. The first time you connect you will be asked to enter your email address. Then select 'Connect' to accept our terms and conditions.

Please speak to a member of staff if you need help.

Introduction

Thirst is a universal human experience, shared with most other living beings. Our search for water is a vital part of life. As only 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh, our land thirsts too.

The word ‘thirst’ derives from the root word ters*, meaning dry, and is connected to land-related terms like territory and terrain. Humanity’s thirst for water motivated early civilisations to draw territorial lines and inspired ancient ingenuity to secure water supplies. But thirst is also associated with greed. The water crisis we face today is often described as only an environmental issue. This masks exploitative practices like over-extraction, and other causes such as conflict.

However, the regenerative power of water offers hope as we face the current climate crisis. We can learn from its cyclical, healing nature, as well as from communities, past and present, who create abundance out of scarcity.

This exhibition flows through the conditions of aridity, rain, glaciers, surface water and groundwater. It examines the consequences of freshwater’s mismanagement, the impact of climate change, and water as a carrier of infectious disease. It also reminds us of freshwater’s ultimate role as the source of life and an essential pillar of good health.

Freshwater and the Epic of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh and Aga cuneiform tablet

Unknown maker

Old Babylonian (c. 1900–1600 BCE), present-day Iraq

Clay

Courtesy of The University of Manchester JRL 0931

The earliest account of a war for water comes from the Sumerian poem 'Gilgamesh and Aga' from the 'Epic of Gilgamesh', composed around 2100-2000 BCE. King Aga demands to enslave the subjects of King Gilgamesh of Uruk to dig wells for his city. Aga threatens to cut off Uruk’s water supply upstream on the Euphrates River if Gilgamesh refuses. A blend of historical record and mythology, the poem illustrates how important access to freshwater has been, since early civilisations.

Another notable story from the Epic tells of the deluge. The universal flood, orchestrated by the five gods and intended to destroy most of humanity, is similar to the Judeo-Christian Biblical story of Noah. Throughout the poem, water symbolises the cycle of life while also highlighting human vulnerability, at the mercy of nature.

Reproduction of Gilgamesh and Aga cuneiform tablet

Rylands Heritage Imaging Lab

2025

Polyactic acid filament, sand, acrylic paints, varnish

Courtesy of John Rylands Library and Factum Foundation

Please touch and interact with the facsimile.

This is a detailed reproduction of the Gilgamesh and Aga tablet, created using high-resolution images captured in spring 2025 with the innovative Selene photometric stereo system and 3D photogrammetry technology.

Aridity

The exhibition begins where thirst is most acute.

About 43% of land on Earth is arid. Arid land has sustained periods of low rainfall, high temperatures and groundwater that is either limited or salt-contaminated. Artists Raqs Media Collective note: ‘To be thirsty is to immediately understand the limits of the body and the planet.’

In recent decades, drought has severely affected land stretching over 15,000 kilometres, from Morocco, across Egypt, through Iran into northern India and China. In 2022, Europe experienced its worst drought in at least 500 years. This growing global challenge is projected to impact three in four people by 2050, driven by rapidly rising temperatures as well as unsustainable land and water management.

For millennia, communities in arid lands have devised ways to secure access to freshwater, each working with their unique landscape. What can we learn from those most experienced with thirst?

Before it’s gone

M’hammed Kilito
2020 – ongoing, Morocco
Photographic prints
Courtesy of the artist

To artist M’hammed Kilito, the oasis is the perfect model of sustainability. Date palms, with their parasol-shaped foliage, create a humid microclimate and retain water in soil. This offers an ecological defence against desertification and a refuge for biodiversity. 'Before it’s gone' is a long-term project documenting the complex issue of oasis degradation in Morocco and its impact on oases inhabitants.

Morocco has been in a drought since 2018. Parts of the Sahara did not see rain for four consecutive years, while a flash flood killed dozens in the desert town of Ouarzazate in 2024. Kilito tells stories of farmers, scientists and citizen associations fighting to preserve these islands of greenery against increasingly threatening living conditions.

Thirst/Trishna

Raqs Media Collective (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta)

2025

Digital video on projection and screens, wood, vinyl

Courtesy of the artists

Please do not touch the installation.

Artists Raqs Media Collective have long explored the concept of thirst through time-based media, historical inquiry and philosophical reflection. This is the first of two connected interventions commissioned for this exhibition.

'Thirst/Trishna' transports us to the stepwells of Rajasthan and Delhi. These monumental subterranean structures were first built in the 3rd century CE in the more arid regions of the Indian subcontinent. They ensured access to water while serving social and religious functions. The deep descent down the series of steps to the water level can be seen as a form of pilgrimage.

This installation reflects on both the absence and the unpredictable overflow of water. In several Indic languages – Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Odiya – trishna (तृष्णा) means thirst. Across South Asian philosophy, the word is associated with craving, aspiration, longing, obsession and desire. If monuments are markers of human history, watermarks on stepwells inscribe a history of thirst, carrying the memory of each step taken in search of freshwater.

Qanat

Qanats are ancient underground water transport networks, originating from the plains of Khuzestan in Iran around 3000 years ago. They channel water from aquifers at the foothills of mountains, carrying water across vast deserts for thousands of kilometres, relying solely on gravity. 

The qanat irrigates gardens and provides iced drinks in the heart of the desert. This technology later spread from Central Asia to Southern Europe and North Africa, playing a crucial role in shaping the rich visual and material cultures in these regions and beyond.

In 1968, it was estimated that the 22,000 qanats in Iran could irrigate 3 million acres of arid land. Although many are now abandoned, functioning qanats can still be found in Morocco, Italy and Oman. Researchers are investigating the potential of revitalising qanats in places that face increasingly severe drought.

Hafez greets a youth in The Divan of Hafez

Hafez (original author), ‘Abd al-Samad (calligrapher), Govardhan (painter)
c. 1360s (authored), Shiraz, Iran; 1582 (copied), 1610 (painted), Agra, India
Ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper
On loan, Trustees of the Chester Beatty Library In 15.7r

This allegorical portrait shows the Sufi poet Hafez in a symbolic paradise garden, admiring a youth who is the Divine personified. This setting illustrates the enduring significance of controlling water in the Persianate world (regions influenced by Persian culture, historically spanning across West, Central and South Asia).

The chahar bagh, a four-fold garden with water channels, is a design dating back to antiquity. The sight of a lush, orderly garden amid the desert offers a vision of paradise on earth. It also showcases the ingenious water management and irrigation systems supported by qanats.

Hypothetical territorial section drawing showing how the qanat system alongside architectural structures such as ab anbar (water storage) and yakhchal (ice chamber) provided water for bagh (garden), farms and settlements

2020

Adapted by Wolfe Hall with permission from Negar Sanaan Bensi and Raul Forsoni

1. Qanats at Yazd, Iran

Georg Gerster

1976

© Estate Georg Gerster, Switzerland,

www.georgegerster.com

2. Bagh-e Shahzadeh in Mahan, Iran

Georg Gerster

1977

© Estate Georg Gerster, Switzerland,
www.georgegerster.com

3. Yakhchal in Yazd, Iran

Evgeniy Fesenko

2020s
Evgeniy Fesenko / Alamy

X-ray image of Ewer

Nick Vasey

 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Ewer with ice container

Unknown makers

1662–1722 (ceramic), China; 1800–1850 (adaptation), Iran

Porcelain, silver, copper alloy, unidentified gemstone

Victoria and Albert Museum 555-1878

Icemaking was practised in Iran as early as 400 BCE. The tall, curved walls of yakhchal ice chambers collected water via qanat and froze it in shaded pools during winter, storing it in deep pits.

A Kangxi period Chinese powder-blue porcelain vase was exported to Iran and adapted to make this ewer. A cylindrical internal ice container was added to chill drinks.

Inscriptions of a Shi'ite prayer suggest the ewer was used to serve cool drinks to passersby as an act of piety and charity. This prayer commemorates the suffering of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of the Prophet, and his 72 companions. They died having been denied access to water during the Battle of Karbala' in 680.

AI models mapping Qanats in Kerman, Iran from UnderTheSands project

Nazarij Buławka, Hector A. Orengo, Iban Berganzo-Besga

2025

Courtesy of Nazarij Buławka, Hector A. Orengo, and Iban Berganzo-Besga; UnderTheSands: Ancient irrigation detection and analysis using advanced remote sensing methods, funded by The European Union; HEXAGON images courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey; Natural Earth

Computational archaeologists are using machine learning to map existing qanats and uncover those that have disappeared. Using US spy satellite imagery taken in 1971–1986 during the Cold War, they can collect remote data, even in areas where on-site investigations are not feasible.

The qanat system is designed for communal use. Each dot detected in the images represents a shaft. Tracing the dots reveals the irrigation system and shows how societies and landscapes have changed over time. Over the past 40 to 50 years, water privatisation has led to the loss of qanat and associated heritage across regions from Afghanistan to Spain, Italy and Morocco.

Arab fluids. A hydro-journey on vernacular water heritage in Palermo. The underground qanat system

LOTs - Libero Osservatorio Territoriale sud / Free Territorial Observatory South
2025, Sicily, Italy
Video, 7 minutes 50 seconds

Courtesy of Francesca Gattello, Dario Di Liberti/CAVE Studio

'Arab Fluids' explores remnants of Sicily's qanats and little-known water heritage.

During Muslim rule of Sicily (827–1072 AD), an efficient and sustainable Arab hydraulic system was widely implemented, using capillary irrigation. It influences Sicily's water culture to this day.

LOTs is a collective of activists, designers and researchers. They interweave social design, art, spatial and participatory practices to revitalise marginalised material culture. 

The video documents qanats still used in citrus orchards in Scillato (Conca d’Oro), and the abandoned subterranean canals in Palermo – both integral to cultural heritage yet largely unacknowledged. It explores the remnants of this past tradition, journeying through sites and atmospheres linking Palermo’s under- and overground worlds.

Arab fluids. A hydro-journey on vernacular water heritage in Palermo. ‘Scillato and the persistence of the traditional irrigation system’

LOTs - Libero Osservatorio Territoriale sud / Free Territorial Observatory South

2025, Sicily, Italy

Printed book

Courtesy of Francesca Gattello, Diego Perez, Nicola Novello

This work can be touched.

In Scillato, a small number of farms still share water through the historic Sicilian-Arabic irrigation methods known as ‘Gebbie and Saie’ (reservoirs and canals), with its ethos of collective management.

In collaboration with the local community LOTs tells the story of Scillato to deconstruct the dominant narrative on water in Sicily. This village and its surroundings are abundant in hydro resources. But its springs, streams, and rivers don’t serve the villagers. They feed the overground aqueduct constructed in the 19th century that remains as one of the main water suppliers for the city of Palermo.

A Bummolo and its cross-section

Alessandro Strano (Studio Mud)

2025, Sicily, Italy

Terracotta

A Bummolo is a vessel of Arab origin unique to Sicily. It is a sealed jug with a hole at the base, through which liquid is poured. The hole extends inside the container like a bottle neck; once filled, the bummolo is turned upside down without spilling a drop. This design helps protect its contents from external pollutants. The pointed tip and the terracotta material keeps water cool and sanitary under the scorching sun.

Still used in Sicilian households today, the bummolos reflect the cross-cultural influences and historical roots of Sicily’s water systems and heritage.

Rain

In dry lands, people thirst for rain. Its arrival creates rivers out of parched valleys, bringing life and joy even in the worst circumstances. With the gift of rain, plants flourish to feed and heal.

If distributed evenly across the planet, global rainfall would create an 86 cm-deep body of freshwater. In reality, precipitation patterns vary widely from place to place. But they are connected. At the beginning of the 20th century, a British meteorologist demonstrated that the Indian monsoon determined the Nile flood. This proved that rain patterns are partly based on planetary rhythms, far beyond human control.

Rain brings relief for some, risk for others. Through photographer and filmmaker Gideon Mendel’s lens, we witness the personal impact of floods over the last two decades. Entangled global and regional influences, from tidal surges to blocked urban channels, make flooding difficult to predict. We are left vulnerable in the face of a deluge.

Walking in Wadis

Lora Aziz and Motanafas Collective

2021–2025, St Catherine, Egypt

Paper, soil, charcoal, plant matter, coffee beans, photographic prints on paper, watercolour on paper, embroidered cotton, video

Courtesy of Lora Aziz

Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula saw unusual, sustained rainfall during the pandemic, after decades-long drought. Local wormwood, Artemisia Judaica, flourished and was found to treat the symptoms of the Covid variant, Omicron. This reflected the local belief that for every disease that emerges, nature will offer a cure.

Artist and wildcrafter Lora Aziz champions traditional plant knowledge and environmental equality. Through herbal art, foraging and plant medicine, Aziz aims to rekindle a sense of wonder for the planet.

In St Catherine, Bedouin youth inherit deep knowledge of their land, passed down through generations. Aziz introduced them to biomimicry (design inspired by nature), ethnobotany (how people and plants interact) and citizen science (public involvement in scientific research). The young participants discovered new pathways for creative expression and documentation, and agency in preserving their natural heritage.

The rain that fills the well

Saeed Jumna, Ahmed Ramadan, Hagar Elhady, Lora Aziz and Marley Karazimba
2021, 2025

Video, 1 minute 30 seconds

Courtesy of Lora Aziz

Dried herbs from Lora Aziz’s herbal dispensary

2025, Egypt

Courtesy of the artist

This work can be touched.

Please open the glass jars to smell the herbs. You can refer to the Sinai Floral Field Guide to identify the samples.

Habak (حَبَق), Mentha longifolia, Horse mint
Used in teas; aromatic mint that is becoming scarce in the region.

Al Rabel (الرَّبِل), Pulicaria incisa, Wild mountain tea, Undulate fleabane
Used medicinally for colds and body aches; also prepared as a tea.

Al Bathara’an (البثرآن), Artemisia Judaica, Judean wormwood
Sharp-smelling herb used for colic, fevers and as an insect repellent. Commonly confused with Artemisia herba-alba (White wormwood).

Marmariyet el jabal (مرمية الجبل ), Salvia multicaulis, Mountain sage
Grows in rocky high-altitude areas. Used traditionally in tea for calming effects, stomach issues and colds.

Sinai Floral Field Guide

Rehab Eldalil

2022, St Catherine, Egypt

Printed paper

Courtesy of the artist

This work can be touched.

This field guide records the diverse and bountiful medicinal plants native to South Sinai. It is a collaboration between the elders of the Jebeleya tribe, the indigenous Bedouin community in St Catherine, and Rehab Eldalil, a fifth-generation diaspora photographer. The guide is founded on their extensive knowledge and memories of the land.

Eldalil engaged local young people in using the field guide to explore the natural ecology of Wadi Gharba, to learn and practise how to use the land’s harvest. By combining ancestral wisdom and modern tools and methodologies, the young Bedouins could preserve their traditions while embracing their contemporary identity.

Ein Aouja

Adam Rouhana

2022, Palestine

Photographic print on paper

Courtesy of Adam Rouhana

Please do not touch the photo.

Wadis are river valleys that remain dry throughout most of the year. Water runs through the riverbeds only when heavy seasonal rains fall.

Ein Aouja is among the largest springs in eastern West Bank, near Jericho. Adam Rouhana took this photograph after the arrival of seasonal rains in late summer 2022. He captured the stream as a gathering place for people to enjoy this gift of nature, even under surveillance and threat. By the time he returned in 2024, this cherished scene had vanished.

To the Palestinian American photographer, the innate joy of being with water is the greatest form of resistance.

‘We’re so used to seeing Palestinian death,’ says Rouhana. ‘I want to show Palestinian life.’

To Sufferers from Nervous Depression

George du Maurier

1869, UK

Wood engraving print on paper

 Wellcome Collection 13804i

The UK, though not statistically the rainiest place on Earth, is often portrayed as a country of consistent drizzle and overcast skies.

This cartoon makes the connection between weather conditions and mental health. A man finds it hard to cultivate a ‘cheerful frame of mind’, alone in the country in the driving rain. George du Maurier drew it more than a century before seasonal affective disorder (SAD) was formally recognised. SAD is a type of depression triggered by seasonal changes.

The monthly rainfall and air temperature of the British Isles

Alexander Buchan, F.M.S. &c

1901, UK (original)

Printed paper

Rainfall Atlas of the British Isles

Royal Meteorological Society

1926, UK

Printed book

Wellcome Collection

In display case to the left.

The first comprehensive rainfall atlas for the UK was published in 1920, providing detailed maps of rainfall distribution across different regions.

The UK’s weather is influenced by six air masses, each carrying temperature and moisture from its origin. When these air masses clash it causes sudden weather shifts. The Atlantic Ocean sends moist air which condenses into clouds and rain, particularly in regions like the Lake District and Wales. The UK’s small landmass amplifies the effects of varying airmasses, creating microclimates.

Climate change is shifting rain patterns, causing more extreme and unpredictable weather, including heavier rainfall and storms. It is estimated that climate change has increased total rainfall in the UK by about 15%.

Water-supply, Rainfall, Reservoirs, Conduits and Distribution

Alexander Richardson Binnie

1878, UK

Printed book

Wellcome Collection

Rainfall and Climate in India

Joseph Fayrer

1881, UK

Printed book

Museum of Military Medicine / Wellcome Collection

19th-century British colonial rulers in India prioritised water-intensive cash crop production, such as cotton and indigo. Monsoon failures and drought in India during 1876 and 1877 devastated global trade. This prompted the colonial authorities to introduce meteorological studies to understand weather patterns and maximise their profits.

Monsoons are seasonal wind patterns that bring significant changes in weather, particularly rainfall. The southwest monsoon, influenced by the Indian Ocean and the Himalayas, accounts for 70–80% of India’s annual rainfall. But the warming ocean is changing these patterns. Unpredictable weather, including more frequent dry spells and intense wet periods, challenges water management and biodiversity. Disruptions in one region can ripple across ecosystems and societies worldwide.

Deluge

Gideon Mendel

2007 – 2024, Pakistan (2010 and 2022), Australia (2011), Thailand (2011), Nigeria (2012 and 2022), Germany (2013), India (2014), the UK (2014 and 2016), Bangladesh (2015), The USA (2015, 2017 and 2018), Brazil (2015, 2024) and France (2016 and 2018)

Five-channel video, 21 minutes 10 seconds

Courtesy of Gideon Mendel

Photographer, filmmaker and activist Gideon Mendel documents overwhelming climate events around the world, focusing here on flooding. Challenging mainstream journalistic representations of natural disasters, this five-channel video installation is the culmination of nearly two decades of work.

The film reveals the dystopian aftermath of flooding, following individuals as they return to their submerged homes. Showing people from diverse backgrounds side by side, he reveals their shared vulnerability. Pausing in the liquid landscape that surrounds them, they face the camera with dignity and resilience, inviting us to engage with their experience.

Glaciers

Glaciers hold the largest reserve of Earth's freshwater, our planet’s largest reserve is frozen in ice.

Melt water from snow and glaciers on high-elevation mountains is vital for countries with glacier fields, such as Argentina, Canada, Chile and Nepal. This is especially true for indigenous communities who have lived in these ranges for centuries.

Images of receding glaciers have become a familiar sight in climate change campaigns, yet the consequences are rarely revealed. These include the loss of habitats as well as the intangible heritage of those who live there, such as folk songs. Rapidly melting glaciers, combined with pollution and inadequate infrastructure, also create ideal conditions for ill-health. Dengue and other diseases can spread further and faster than ever.

In his new multimedia commission, artist Karan Shrestha shares stories of climate, health and disease from the Newar people, indigenous to Kathmandu Valley, Nepal.

water-givers, memory-keepers, and the shifting forces

Karan Shrestha (lead artist), Shahid Ansari (weaver), Udit Duseja (sound designer)

2025, Nepal, UK

Ink on cotton paper, copper, fossils, sound recording, video on screen

Courtesy of the artist

With residency support from Delfina Foundation

Please do not touch the installation.

This installation explores the interconnected issues facing Nepal, a country susceptible to seismic activity and erratic rainfall. Global warming melts glaciers, causing flooding. These factors are complicated by industrial pollution, state corruption and social stratification. Infectious disease is rife and leads to the displacement of both human and nonhuman inhabitants. Dengue outbreaks surged tenfold in the last 20 years; the worst outbreak in 2022 saw 55,000 cases and 88 deaths.

Artist Karan Shrestha explores the entanglements of place and memory. His work alludes to the oral stories, songs and mythologies from across the Himalayan region that honour what the artist describes as ‘hydrological continuity’. In these accounts, water transcends being reduced to a resource for human gain. Instead, it is revered as a life-offering force, which must be shared among all beings.

A culicinae mosquito (Aedes aegypti)

Amedeo John Engel Terzi

1901, London

Pen, ink, watercolour on board

Wellcome Collection 41477i

Exchanges with Wellcome-funded public health initiatives World Mosquito Program and DHIS 2 contributed to Shrestha’s ongoing research on the state of water in Nepal, such as understanding the crucial role Aedes aegypti plays.

Aedes aegypti is highly adaptive to human bodies and city life, transmitting multiple diseases, including dengue. Severe dengue can lead to organ impairment and death. Prevention and water management remain key to mitigate dengue outbreaks due to the lack of specific treatment.

A.J.E. Terzi produced detailed and precise depictions of the mosquito for the newly opened London School of Tropical Medicine (est. 1899), contributing to the study of epidemics and parasites.

Ice Records Listening Room

Susan Schuppli

Sound recording, 19 minutes 16 seconds

Courtesy of the artist

There is a British Sign Language interpreted video introducing Ice Records on the wall in the listening room.

Pick up a pair of headphones and be transported to the glacial fields of Ladakh, the Himalayan Range, the Canadian Rockies, meltwater streams in Norway and the Arctic Svalbard.

The crackling sound of ice melting is not just a record of receding glaciers. It is also a testimonial to the changing nature of freshwater ice around the world. With these changes come drastic upheaval for the communities who inhabit glacial landscapes. The recordings are at once glaciological data and an archive of folk life and songs, capturing the poignant beauty found in loss and resilience.

Ice Records and cover sleeve

Susan Schuppli

2022, Denmark

Vinyl record, printed paper

Ancient air bubbles trapped in glaciers hold evidence of increased greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. As glaciers melt and ice sheets retreat, we lose crucial information about Earth’s climate history.

Researcher Susan Schuppli gathers sonic material from glaciologists, environmentalists and communities. Sound waves in the recordings are shaped by the moisture content, air pressure and temperature. Ice is now melting quicker than glaciers’ annual accumulation of snow and ice. In addition to being an archive of the past, the sound of ice popping also carries information of the current environmental conditions in which it's recorded.

Folk singer Morup Namgyal; Manuscripts of Ladakhi and Tibetan songs collected by Namgyal from the 1960s; Singing Ice workshop held at the Women's Alliance of Ladakh, Chubi, Leh; and Singing Ice workshop held during the Sa Ladakh Festival

2021-2022, Ladakh, India
Printed photographs

Courtesy of Susan Schuppli

Going clockwise.

Singing Ice

Morup Namgyal (song collector), Susan Schuppli (editor), Faiza Ahmad Khan (editor), Jigmet Angmo (illustrator)

2022, Ladakh, India

Printed book

Courtesy of Susan Schuppli

In the Himalayas, extreme water scarcity has forced mountain villagers to abandon their remote communities, taking with them valuable environmental knowledge and practices. Singing Ice contains a selection of Ladakhi and Tibetan folksongs preserved by singer Morup Namgyal, who is determined to keep this oral tradition alive. Born out of a project by Schuppli and a small team of Indian scientists, the book is intended to educate the next generations about the environmental histories of Ladakh recorded in its poetry and rhythms.

The opening pages shows 'The Pearls in the White Snow', a song sung by Namgyal in track 11, playing in the Ice Records Listening Room. 

Surface Water

Surface water flows through rivers and lakes to wetlands. It is fed by rain, snowmelt and groundwater seepage. While essential for sustenance, it is often polluted by waste and toxins.

Thirst arises not only from scarcity, but also from worsening water quality. Factors including urban water system mismanagement, wetland drainage for industry and intensive agriculture contribute to this decline, resulting in biodiversity loss and ill health. Marginalised communities are hardest hit by these practices.

Traditional wisdom and local technologies are often rooted in nature-based science. Rome was transformed from a swamp to floodplains on these principles. Today, the revitalisation of the Iraq Marshes and tree planting along the Beirut River are examples of how to build safe and equitable water futures, engaged with local communities.

Transformation of prehistoric Rome

The prehistoric landscape of Rome offered advantages to early inhabitants, particularly with a wide section of the Tiber River facilitating fording and harbour activities. Rome’s oldest known temple, built on the riverbank around 560 BCE, highlights the area’s importance.

A geoarchaeological coring survey of this district, the Forum Boarium, yields insights into the city’s changing landscape. Environmental Archaeologists Andrea L. Brock, Laura Motta and Nicola Terrenato have demonstrated the existence of a harbour and ford near the temple.

Studying geoarchaeological stratigraphy (layers of human and geological materials) reveals the Tiber River Valley’s transformation as the city of Rome grew, especially in the sixth century BCE. Rome’s early citizens responded to environmental changes with collective action, a large labour force and elite investment in public infrastructure, such as drainage systems and embankment walls.

A pair of visualisations of the early archaic riverbank looking north towards the harbour temple and the Capitoline Hill, depicted with low and high river levels

Lorene Sterner, after Ioppolo in Pisani Sartori

1989

Prints on paper
Courtesy of Andrea L. Brock

Map of Rome’s central river valley with the locations of mechanised boreholes produced by the Forum Boarium Project

Daniel P. Diffendale
2024
Prints on paper
Courtesy of Andrea L. Brock

These drawings illustrate how Rome's first temple, erected in 560 BCE, was strategically placed to be safe from floods and visible from the river. Its placement reflects a keen awareness of the Tiber’s flood behaviors at that time.

As the Romans began building on a monumental scale, intensive deforestation upriver led to rapid silting of its river valley. By the late sixth century, Romans abandoned their first harbour temple, constructing a five-metre high platform to support two new temples, safe from increased flood levels.

The map to the right indicates the location of the boreholes where the three core samples on display were excavated. They show three distinct phases of the Tiber Valley’s transformation.

1. Core sample from 2000 BCE, Tiber riverbed

Sand, gravel
Extracted 2019, Rome
Courtesy of the University of Michigan, Andrea L. Brock, and Laura Motta

2. Core sample from 6th century BCE, floodplain sedimentation

Silt, soil, mud

Extracted 2019, Rome
Courtesy of the University of Michigan, Andrea L. Brock, and Laura Motta

3. Core sample from mid 2nd century BCE, anthropic fill

Chalk, ceramics, mortar
Extracted 2019, Rome
Courtesy of the University of Michigan, Andrea L. Brock, and Laura Motta

The top core contains sandy, loose sediments from 18 metres below the modern street level. This was deposited in or near the Tiber’s active river channel in the second millennium BCE.

The middle core represents a period of transformation in the sixth century BCE, when the area rapidly silted up during a series of floods. This made the ground level of Rome’s central riverbank and its river island both higher and wider. The fine-grained sediments are characteristic of floodplain landscapes.

The bottom sample reflects a later period, when Rome’s central riverbank was heavily urbanised. What look like flecks of chalk are mortar fragments. These allow us to date it to after the invention of concrete that sets in contact with water, in the mid-second century BCE.

Lead water pipe, possibly from the house of Empress Messalina

47 CE, Rome

Lead

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A635516

Terracotta water pipe

200 BCE – 200 CE, Rome

Terracotta

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A634792

Drain cover

1 – 400 CE, Rome

Lead

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A635517

Decorated drain cover

100 – 400 CE, Rome

Limestone, marble, lead, bronze

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A635518

Roman water systems also improved people’s health, as street cleaning, waste disposal and freshwater supplies were established. Lead water pipes (fistulae), often inscribed with patrons’ names, supplied the homes of Rome’s wealthy citizens. The adverse effects of lead toxicity were not yet known. Cheaper terracotta pipes were used in towns and cities and could be readily repaired.

Drain covers allowed rainwater to flow into water pipes while stopping blockages from mud and rocks. They also prevented people getting their feet stuck in drains on Rome’s busy streets. Like pipes, they also come in humble and lavish variations, benefitting allof the city’s inhabitants, rich and poor.

Water sanitation

The word sanitation derives from sanitas, Latin for ‘health’. Access to clean drinking water in urban centres is crucial for human health. Methods of water purification continue to evolve, adapting to changing environments, demographics, living conditions and diseases.

Urban water quality faces multiple, interconnected challenges. These range from aging infrastructure, excess demand and pollution, to more recently understood microplastic contamination.

Drinkable water in London is sourced primarily from the River Thames and River Lea. It is treated rigorously to meet UK and EU standards for safety and quality. But the main supplier, Thames Water, has faced scandals in recent years, including environmental fines for sewage discharges.

Water jug filters with elephant, camel, hare, bird, fish designs and Arabic inscription

c.900–1200, Egypt

Earthenware

Victoria & Albert Museum. Given by Mr G. D. Hornblower. C.898-1921, C.863-1921, C.862-1921, C.870-1921, C.856-1921, C.966-1921

Water purification techniques can be traced back to 13th century BCE Egypt. By the Fatimid Period (909–1171 CE), the qullah – an earthenware water jug – was commonly used for storing, cooling and filtering drinking water. Circular ceramic grilles between the body and neck keep out insects and contaminants. The grilles’ intricate clay lacework was a key artistic element, emphasising the value of clean water.

Artisans decorated the grilles with geometric patterns, calligraphy and depictions of animals. Inscriptions offered wisdom to those who drank from the qullah, such as this example which advises ‘abstain and heal’, combining function with symbolic meaning.

Monster soup, commonly called Thames water

William Heath

1828, London

Etching, watercolour on paper

Wellcome Collection 12079i

By the early 19th century, London’s population had increased by 60% and the Thames was heavily contaminated with industrial waste, sewage and refuse.

This cartoon was made in 1828, the year a Commission on the London Water Supply was appointed to investigate this situation. Following their report, the water companies which served the city north of the river improved their supplies by building reservoirs. But the people of Southwark continued to receive untreated water for another six years.

The ghost of Broadwick Street

Late 19th century, London

Photographic print on card

Wellcome Collection

London saw four major cholera outbreaks, in 1831–2, 1848–9, 1854 and 1865–6. These came to be known as the ‘cholera years’. The disease spread indiscriminately, causing degrading symptoms (diarrhoea and vomiting) and high level of mortality.

The bacteria that cause cholera breed in contaminated water. But the disease was blamed on ‘miasmas’ (bad air) until physician John Snow investigated the 1854 outbreak. He revealed that the source was a Soho pump – the ‘ghost’ in this image. His discovery would transform the understanding of the role of germs in disease transmission.

Map showing the distribution of cholera in London and its environs from 27 June to 22 July, 1866

The Medical Officer of the Privy Council
1867, London
Wellcome Collection

London’s last cholera outbreak occurred in 1866. It affected areas with poor sanitation, primarily in the East End of the city. Snow's findings influenced how subsequent cholera incidents were handled, based on the principle that cholera was waterborne.

Mapping helped identify infection hotspots and contaminated water sources. This enabled targeted sanitation interventions, improving water supply and reducing spread. Having begun in the summer, the outbreak had already subsided by the autumn.

Cholera outbreaks catalysed major improvements in London’s water system. The city's present sewerage system was installed in the 1860s by the Metropolitan Board of Works and its engineer Joseph Bazalgette.

A microscopic examination of the water supplied to the inhabitants of London

Arthur Hill Hassall

1850, London
Printed book

Wellcome Collection EPB/B/27866

Carbon water filter

Lipscombe & Company

c.1880, Manchester

Glazed stoneware
Science Museum Group Y1992.62

Arthur Hill Hassall's detailed studies identified disease-causing microorganisms in mid-19th-century London water. His findings shifted public opinion about the importance of water quality for health. Viewing water under a microscope even became a popular entertainment in Victorian London. His work also paved the way for modern microbiology and public health reforms in urban water management.

Charcoal inside Lipscombe & Company's filters absorbed bacteria from water, making it safer to drink. This product was one of the first practical applications of carbon filtration in urban settings. It influenced later developments in water treatment technology.

Soloid Brand Water Analysis Case No. 500

Burroughs Wellcome & Co
1900s, London

Mahogany, brass, felt, glass, paper, ceramic, metal, cotton, rubber, leather, cork
Wellcome Collection

The ‘Soloid’ is a brand of portable water testing kit manufactured by Burroughs Wellcome & Co for on-site chemical examination of water quality. It was designed to be used by people with minimal analytical training, especially in field environments.

Colonising forces need access to clean water but lack local knowledge about reliable sources. The kit on display was used at the Wukari water hole in Nigeria in 1908. The test follows British colonisation of the Wukari state, incorporating it into the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in early 1900s.

Mineral Lick

Dala Nasser

2019, Lebanon

Mixed discarded fabrics, latex, salt, and tap water from Beirut, Lebanon

Courtesy of the artist

Please do not touch the work.

Lebanon is a water-rich country but its capital, Beirut, has seen its public water infrastructure destroyed by prolonged unrest and governmental neglect. Tap water is contaminated. Citizens have no choice but to pay for privatised rooftop water tanks.

Lebanese artist Dala Nasser considers materials as witness. She collected tap water from all sixty sectors of Beirut, mixing equal parts dye and rock salt to each sample. She then dipped pieces of fabric mixed with latex into them. The resulting rash-like textures reflect different levels of acidity and salinity in the samples.

Coincidentally, the bottom of this tapestry was soaked by floodwater, a main source of water pipe pollution, on the day civil protests against government corruption began in 2019.

Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden

The Iraq Marshes, formed by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, are home to the Ma’dan people (meaning ‘dweller in the plains’), one of humanity’s oldest cultures. Rush, reed and papyrus are interspersed with mud, providing an oasis for millions of migratory birds, fish and wildlife. Some regard the Marshes to be the biblical Garden of Eden.

Today, sewage is being channelled into the marshes. The Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden combines art, engineering and garden design to regenerate the environment. Routed through reeds, the wastewater is cleaned by bacteria. These transform the sewage into minerals which provide nutrients for plants and fruit trees in the Wastewater Garden.

The project is an international collaboration between the founder of Nature Iraq, Jassim Al-Asadi, artist Meridel Rubenstein and environmental engineer Davide Tocchetto, using the Wastewater Garden technology advocated by ecologist Mark Nelson.

Nature Iraq NGO’s Mudhief, Al Chibayish

Meridel Rubenstein

2011, Iraq

Photographic print

Courtesy of Meridel Rubenstein

Cylinder seal with cattle and reed huts

Late Uruk (3400–3100 BCE), Mesopotamia

Magnesite, silver

The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford. Purchased, 1964. AN1964.744

The Ma’dan people have been living in mudhiefs, reed houses on floating islands of reed and papyrus, for at least 7,000 years.  The traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and ancient innovation used to construct them is passed down through generations.  Mudhiefs are portable and can be moved and re-erected in less than a day when water levels change. With proper care, they can last for 25 years.

Key to Ma’dan identity is the marshland’s Mesopotamian history (derived from the Greek for ‘land between rivers’). This cylinder seal features mudhiefs and women making reed bundles, evidence of this ecological technology’s millennia-long tradition.

Mesopotamian embroidered wedding blanket

Zainab Kahdim Farham

1960s, Iraq

Cotton embroidery

Courtesy of Jassim Al-Asadi

Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden Site Plan

2011- ongoing, Al-Chibayish

Courtesy of Meridel Rubenstein and Davide Tocchetto

Please do not touch.

The design of the Wastewater Garden references the rich visual culture and history of Mesopotamia and Islamic traditions, especially the paradise garden (chahar bagh). Its planting layout is inspired by the intricate patterns and symbols embroidered on Mesopotamian wedding blankets. This tradition is upheld by the women's weaving cooperative, where the essence of nature, biological diversity, and ancestral spirit are woven into the textile art.

The site includes shade structures and viewing towers built using regenerative reed architecture and thermally stable earthen bricks. These are designed for local businesses to sell crafts, produce and food, fostering community engagement and economic opportunity.

Amethyst Room

Meridel Rubenstein

2017, Iraq and US

Photographic print on linen

Courtesy of Meridel Rubenstein

“My first trips to Iraq, I was searching for the colours of Eden. When you’re in the marsh area, except for the reeds…there is only earthen brown. But when you enter homes, the colours are there… Amethyst is the colour of the room but also a colour of Eden.”- Meridel Rubenstein

The border of this print feature images of flora mentioned in the Qur’an, from the Royal Botanic Garden in Jordan, where 23,000 endangered wild plants are preserved.

In collaboration with Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, the Wastewater Garden will include plants and fruit trees resilient to the local climate while reflecting Mesopotamian, biblical and Qur’anic herbal symbolism.

Marsh Village

Nik Wheeler

c.1975, Iraq

Nik Wheeler / aerial view of Marsh Arab village of reed huts via Getty images

Spanning some 20,000 square kilometres when seasonally flooded, the marshes of southern Iraq are a complex tapestry of waterways, rivers and reedbeds. Islands form where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet and empty into the Gulf. Fishing, buffalo herding, rice cultivation and reed harvesting are the mainstays of the Marsh Arabs.

This photo was taken in 1975, before the Iran-Iraq war (1980–1988) and Saddam Hussein’s oppressive Ba’athe regime (1979–2003). It shows the Ma’dan villages (al tahla), comprised of more than 1,200 anchored, human-made islands and free-floating, natural islands on which the Ma’dan people live.

Maps depicting the destruction of the Iraq Marshes, comparing satellite imagery from 1973 and 2000

Wolfe Hall, 2025

Adapted from UN Habitat

In 1992, Saddam Hussein’s regime drained the Iraq Marshes, both to repress the local population and fleeing dissidents and facilitate oil and agricultural development. They razed villages and dried up over 90% of the wetlands. The impact on the Ma’dan and other Marsh dwellers was devastating, with the loss of almost half a million people.

After the regime fell in 2003, local initiatives helped to partially reflood the Marshes. Deep reed patches returned, and Marsh culture has endured, although much reduced in size.

The Marshes are still vulnerable. Risk factors include the construction of a hydropower dam upstream in Turkey and climate change.

In the Marshes

Meridel Rubenstein

2017, Iraq

Video, 10 minutes 5 seconds

Courtesy of Meridel Rubenstein

Boats are the primary mode of transport in the Marshes. In Meridel Rubenstein’s video, we travel onboard with indigenous water activist and engineer Jassim Al-Asad.

Here, the Marsh Arabs sing and gather Typha and phragmite reeds. Water buffaloes live closely alongside their breeders, in environmental harmony. Meanwhile, white snail shells and bullet casings amidst charred reeds mark where the Marshes have been transformed into a scorched desert landscape.

Satellite image of Al Chibayish, 2023 summer

Courtesy of Davide Tochetto, U.S. Geological Survey processed by Sentinel Hub

The construction site of the Wastewater Garden stands as the sole green expanse within a marshland that is turning to desert under extreme heat and drought.

Wetlands, aptly termed ‘the kidneys of the planet’, have a remarkable ability to remove pollutants from water. Marshes offer freshwater supply, flood protection and groundwater recharge. They play a crucial role in climate change mitigation by reflecting solar radiation and absorbing carbon dioxide, creating a localised cooling effect.

The garden demonstrates the power of traditional ecological knowledge and how nature-based, climate-resilient infrastructure might help us face the environmental challenges of our time.

A Coastal Look at Freshwater

Feifei Zhou (lead artist), Jefree Salim (cinematography and interviewer), Zahirah Suhaimi (anthropologist of SEACoast), Alan Woo and Daniel Massey (digital designers and developers), Joe Hilty (film editor)

2024–2025, Singapore, Malaysia, USA

Digital interactive, video 14 minutes 27 seconds

Courtesy of the artists

This installation focuses on the Johor Straits, a narrow waterway between Singapore and Malaysia, exploring ecological and cultural dynamics shaped by rising sea levels and human intervention. It highlights human and non-human interactions in its freshwater, brackish, and marine ecologies of coastal habitats.

By navigating the digital interactive map (left), you can trace the impacts of colonial infrastructure, urbanisation and industrialisation on ecological health and the coastal environment. The short film 'Where Water Ends' playing on the adjacent screen examines these relationships through the histories and everyday encounters of indigenous Orang Seletar and archival materials. This installation invites us to rethink coexistence in a world where water-related challenges shape multispecies survival and environmental possibilities.

Beirut RiverLESS Forest

Beirut's RiverLESS Forest project aims to revive the neglected Beirut River by establishing microforests along its banks. Adib Dada, an architect, activist and environmentalist, is spearheading the transformation.

The waterway flows from northeast Lebanon, skirting central Beirut, and out into Mediterranean Sea. Once a vibrant ecosystem and an essential migratory flyway for birds, the river's decline began in 1934 with a failed dam project. It was later turned into a concrete-lined canal, and pollution has further decreased its vitality. These changes have cut off communities from access to clean, natural environments, particularly those in poorer neighbourhoods.

Responding to these challenges, RiverLESS focuses on renaturalisation through reforestation, empowering citizens to be actively involved in the restoration of local ecosystems. 

Phase 1: Beirut River 2.0 pamphlet; Phase 2: Beirut Riverless pamphlet; and Hamood Badawi on Assafir Newspaper

theOtherDada, Made For Brands

2013–2019, Lebanon

Printed paper
Courtesy of Adib Dada

It took Adib Dada seven years of activism before forest planting could begin. These publications were part of his campaign to reclaim the Beirut River. Dada also led tours and engaged communities, turning the idea of renaturalisation into tangible action. Emphasising ecology over economy, he challenged city planners to create conditions that support environmental recovery.

In 2020, Dada collaborated with local schools affected by a massive explosion in Beirut’s port. Students helped to build 1,500 square metres of playgrounds and sensory gardens, incorporating nature education into urban settings. Planting trees may not seem like a political act, but when individuals restore their surroundings, it can revive both agency and imagination. Amid political and economic challenges, communities are reclaiming, cleaning and rebuilding the river.

Beirut's RiverLESS Forest by SUGi

2019–2024, Lebanon
Video, 4 minutes

Courtesy of SUGi

This video chronicles the journey of Beirut’s RiverLESS Forest, beginning with its first planting in May 2019. Since then, the project has established over 5, 150 trees using the Miyawaki Method. This innovative approach involves densely planting native species to mimic natural forest growth. It creates self-sustaining, biodiverse ecosystems in a short period – often within three years – by nurturing plants in closely spaced clusters for mutual support and accelerated growth. This method is championed by the project’s London-based collaborators, SUGi.

"Let’s enable the native plants, birds, insects and fungi to reclaim their rightful place in the city alongside their human neighbours." - Adib Dada

Prayer belts and embroidery; Le fil des vies éxilées révèle une reverie (the thread of exiled lives reveals a reverie); in doubt ask the RIVER; Beyond ideas of right and wrong in that field is where we place seeds; and FREEDOM

Azul Thomé
2024, Lebanon, France, UK

Cotton, wool, mohair
Courtesy of Azul Thomé of www.souland.org

These woven prayer belts were part of a ceremonial ritual conducted at the source of the Beirut River on 1 May 2024 by Azul Thomé and Adib Dada. In Thomé’s practice of sacred activism, individual fragile threads are woven into a strong braid that represents the power of connection between individuals, communities and the natural world.

Within a landscape and society marked by war in the region, the prayer belts also reflect the intertwined fate of the river and the souls of Beirut’s people. The ceremony symbolised and celebrated the resilience and renewal of the reforestation work.

8. Pagan River Ritual, 23/06/2013; 11. Ganesh Visarjan, 27/09/2015; 20. Blessing of the River, 08/01/2012; 28. Maghrib / Evening Prayer, 08/05/2012; 30. Scattering of Ashes, 23/08/2015; and 32. Mass Baptism, 23/08/2013

Chloe Dewe Mathews
2011–2016, UK

C-type prints, dry mounted onto cards, vinyl wallpaper
Courtesy of the artist

30. Scattering of Ashes, 2015

Chloe Dewe Mathews

2023, UK

Vinyl wallpaper

Courtesy of the artist

Thames Log

Chloe Dewe Mathews
2021, UK
Printed book

You can touch this book.

Artist Chloe Dewe Mathews grew up just steps away from the Thames. Over five years she has photographed the river from its source in the Cotswolds to the estuary mouth in Southend.

From lush countryside to tidal cityscapes, her work captures daily routines and annual rites along the river from African Pentecostal baptisms to Pagan rituals. The images echo the timeless spiritual connections with the Thames and reflect the diverse communities that live along its flow.

“…the river Thames is many things to many people: we project meaning onto it… the river has no definitive identity but rather a multitude of guises, with the capacity to ebb and shift its identity even as it flows downstream.” - Chloe Dewe Mathews

Groundwater

The wellspring is seen as the source of life across many cultures, symbolising sustenance, wisdom, healing and spiritual nourishment. This idea has inspired cultural practices from sacred water pilgrimages to miraculous wells. London’s healing springs were historically sites for local community gatherings.

After glacial ice, the majority of the Earth's freshwater is underground. It is held in porous rock layers reaching as deep as 4.8 km. The word ‘wellspring’ suggests an infinite supply, but groundwater is rapidly depleting as demand increases for growing cities, agriculture, and more recently, operating AI. Between 1970 and 2000, global groundwater volume dropped by 30%. In some regions in India, the US and China, levels fell by tens to hundreds of meters.

Architectural researcher Anthony Acciavatti illuminates the hidden history of the tubewell, a colonial invention that once allowed societies to thrive, but now threatens to bleed the earth dry.

Bottle containing spring water from The Life-Giving Spring (Zoödochos Pege)

2024, Turkey

Water, plastic

Courtesy of Nur Sobers-Khan

You can touch this bottle.

The Life-Giving Spring (depicted in the painting nearby) is located in Istanbul’s Monastery of the Mother of God at the Spring. Many believe in its healing properties and it is still frequented by Orthodox Christians, pilgrims and visitors today. This bottle was collected by academic Nur Sobers-Khan in 2024 as part of her ongoing research into shrines across the world.

The Life-Giving Spring (Zoödochos Pege)

(centre of case)

c. 1700s, Eastern Roman Empire

Egg tempera paint, wood, gilding 

Wellcome Collection 44950i

This painting shows a spring in Istanbul acclaimed for its healing powers. According to Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, on 4 April 450, the Virgin Mary spoke to a soldier searching for water for a blind man. Calling him ‘emperor’, she instructed: “go into the deepest part of the woods, and you will find water there. Take some of the cloudy water in your hands and give it to the blind man to drink… Then you shall know who I am." The blind man recovered his eyesight, and the soldier later became the Byzantine Emperor, Leo I. A monastery was later built on the site of the spring.

1. Bottle of water from the River Jordan at the site of the baptism of Christ

1920–1930, Jordan

Glass, water, cork

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A6033

2. Bottle of medicinal water from temple of Asklepios at Athens

1930, Greece

Glass, water, cork

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A79497

3. Bottle of medicinal water from hot spring of Saint Maria Theresa

1920–1928, Italy

Glass, water, cork

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A103807

4. Bottle containing Braceborogh Spa Ltd. Mineral water

1900–1940, UK

Glass, tin, water

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A653987

5. Bottle containing ‘Sulis’ mineral water from Bath

1900–1940, UK

Glass, metal, water

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A653986

6. Bottle of medicinal water from the ‘Fountain of Youth’

1930–1935, USA

Glass, water, cork

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A635899

7. Water from the ZamZam well

2025, Saudi Arabia
Plastic, water

8. Water from Zoödochos Pege

2024, Turkey
Plastic, water
Courtesy of Nur Sobers-Khan

9. Gangajal, water from the river Ganges

2024, India
Metal, water
Courtesy of Mayur Ghadialy

Springs and rivers are sites of worship, protection and healing in many different traditions throughout the world. People often collect and bring home water, both for its perceived medicinal properties and as a memento of their journey to the source.

In Europe, mineral water from spiritually significant sites has been bottled and sold as a restorative since the early 1600s. Water from spa towns in the UK was marketed as remedy for ailments such as eczema, gout and sciatica.

This display features water collected from the river Jordan at the site of the baptism of Christ, to that from Zamzam well in Mecca bought online. It highlights the shared cultural significance of healing waters and illustrates their continuing influence on modern wellness practices.

1. Flask with embossed illustration of the baptism of Christ

1751–1830, Abyssinia (Ethiopia)

Copper

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A202542

2. Long-necked flat water bottle

1851–1900, Morrocco

Skin, camel’s stomach

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A8871

3. Earthenware pilgrim flask with Phrygian cap on obverse

301–700, Egypt
Earthenware

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A11736

4. Pilgrim cup showing Krishna carried across Ganga

1801–1900, India

Brass

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A199400 

5. Ottoman leather water flask (matara)

1700–1900, Turkey

Leather, ivory

Wellcome Collection / Science Museum Group A12903

Travellers from various cultures have transported healing water in pilgrim bottles. The design of these vessels combines practical function with symbolic meaning.

Leather water flasks (matara) were used by elite members of Ottoman society to bring home water from Zamzam, the sacred well in Mecca that symbolises divine sustenance in Islam. The brass cup depicts the Hindu god Krishna as an infant being carried to safety across the River Yamuna, a tributary of the sacred Ganges, commemorating the Hindu myth of Krishna's survival and reflecting universal themes of protection and divine intervention.

Saint Gangulphus

Johann Kravogl

c.1800s

Coloured lithograph

Wellcome Collection 11101i

The French saint Gangulphus is shown here striking the ground with his staff, bringing forth a miraculous spring. According to Christian legends, he miraculously moved this water source to the grounds of his home from a property he had bought miles away. Suspecting his wife’s infidelity, he instructed her to put her hand into the spring. It scalded her, revealing her guilt. She and her lover then murdered Gangulphus. Following his death in 760, he was venerated across Europe as a ‘well saint’. He became associated with the practice of divination, with people seeking his help to find hidden water sources.

La physique occulte, ou traité de la baguette divinatoire (‘Occult Physics, or Treatise on the divining rod’)

Pierre Le Lorrain, Abbé de Vallemont
1709, France
Leather binding, paper, printed ink
Wellcome Collection EPB/A/53019/2

Two 'V' finger rods and two forked-twig dowsing rods for dowsing

1994

Plastic, wood

Science Museum Group 1999-889, 1999-890

Pierre Le Lorrain’s 1709 book, Occult Physics, or Treatise on the divining rod, reflects the integration of occult practices with scientific investigation in the 17th and 18th centuries. Dowsing involves holding two rods or a forked stick (known as a dowsing or divining rod) believed to move spontaneously when passed over a hidden water source, minerals or treasure. This book served as a guide for practitioners and the curious alike, offering theories about the physics behind dowsing and instructions on the use of the rods.

Dowsing has been passed down through generations. Dowsing rods are still used today by some communities who live and work closely with the land across Europe.

Interview with Black Mary Project

Wellcome Collection Multimedia & Audiovisual
2024–5, UK
Video, 4 minutes 55 seconds

Mary Woolaston was believed to be a 17th-century Black woman keeper of a healing well in King’s Cross known as ‘Black Mary’s Hole’. This video features lead artist Gaylene Gould, producer Zaynab Bunsie, citizen historian Emanuela Aru and the well-keepers of Calthorpe Community Garden, who are exploring Woolaston’s legacy.

Over three years, they have collaborated with Black women artists and the local community in King’s Cross, taking inspiration from Woolaston to envision how a healing well might function in London today. An annual programme of events launches in summer 2025, including a permanent statue imagining Mary Woolaston by sculptor Marcia Bennett Male to be placed in Calthorpe's sunken garden.

St Pancras Wells, King’s Cross, London

c.1700s, England
Engraving, paper

Wellcome Collection 38748i

Sadler's Wells, as it was in 1737, with fashionable water-drinkers

c.1840, England

Wood engraving, paper

Wellcome Collection 38526i

In the 17th and 18th centuries, King's Cross and St Pancras were famed for their healing wells which were believed to have medicinal properties. Londoners came seeking relief from ailments such as digestive disorders and skin conditions. Spas and hydrotherapy were growing popular across Europe. People gathered to drink the purportedly curative waters and socialise. Small businesses sprang up around prominent wells like St Chad's Well in St Pancras, selling water and offering relaxation spaces.

By the 19th century, the popularity of these wells waned due to medical advancements and urbanisation.

History and description of the Parish of Clerkenwell

Thomas Cromwell

1828, England

Printed book, leather quarter-binding

Wellcome Collection EPB/B/19172

This archival record documents the 'Black Mary’s Hole,' a mineral spring managed by Mary Woolaston, a woman described here as of ‘black complexion’ who earned her livelihood as a well-keeper and water healer in the late 17th century. Community member, Emanuela Aru, managed to pinpoint the location with the help of Historic England.

While wells are visible, the well-keepers often remain unseen. Woolaston’s life and experience can just be glimpsed in archival fragments like this one. Historical records have generally ignored or erased working-class Black lives in Britain. This discovery prompts us to recognise the integral but often overlooked role of working Black women in London's urban history.

Mary Woolaston Dreams

Gaylene Gould and Calthorpe Community Garden (Annika Miller-Jones, Cecilia Cruz, Emanuela Aru, Marcia Bennett-Male, Mila Campoy, Nicole Colombo, Zaynab Bunsie)
2025, UK

Printed velvet, ribbons, birch, bamboo

Courtesy of Gaylene Gould

Please do not touch the work.

“Water wells were the place from which the community drew their resource. Wells also symbolised the subconscious mind, the unexplored psyche. In dreams, the state of the water is a signal to our emotional states.”

Artist Gaylene Gould envisages Woolaston’s interior dreamworld, weaving symbols and stories about water from members of Calthorpe Community Garden together with images depicting Woolaston’s imagined past, present and future.

The digital collage on velvet is a curtain for Woolaston’s house, intentionally bringing glamour into the domestic life of a working woman. The night sky background includes stars and heart shapes used on beauty patches popular in the 1600s. Branches connect the artwork back to the garden.

Groundwater Earth

Half of the world’s population drinks groundwater extracted from aquifers – underground layers of rock – by tube wells. This technology has reshaped military, urban and agricultural use of water. Giving access to the unregulated resource of groundwater, tube wells have enabled communities to circumvent less reliable water supplies. But excessive use has contributed to startling planetary consequences, altering Earth’s tilt by 80 centimetres between 1993 and 2010.

Anthony Acciavatti’s research, Groundwater Earth, explores the water cycle that supports agriculture and expanding cities. Through focused studies of Arizona, USA, Jakarta, Indonesia, and New Delhi, India, the comparative display reveals the delicate balance between technological advancement and environmental stewardship. Earth’s underground strata are revealed as a hidden frontline of climate change.

Colour sectional drawing of an Artesian Tube Well at the Wellcome Foundation Research Building, Euston Road, N.W.1.

1931, UK
Ink and watercolour on paper

Wellcome Collection WT/B/3/5/1

Tube wells bore between 1.5 to 300 metres underground to access aquifers. This drawing illustrates an artesian tube well beneath the Wellcome Collection building in the 1930s. Tube well technology was developed during the American Civil War, due to concerns about deliberately poisoned surface water. Swiftly adapted for civilian use, it arrived in the UK by 1867 and became pivotal in water management internationally through colonial expansion. Driven by engines, they allowed water extraction for consumption, agriculture, or distribution to growing cities.

Thames Ditton, Surrey: testing of Norton's tube-wells used to supply water to the British Abyssinian Expedition

The Illustrated London News

1868, UK

Wood engraving on paper

Wellcome Collection 20888i

The British Expedition to Abyssinia: watering-place for transport animals at the entrance to the Koomaylee Pass

J.M., The Illustrated London News

1868, UK

Wood engraving with watercolour on paper

Wellcome Collection 20885i

In 1868, the tube well – then a brand-new technology – was used by British-led forces for a large-scale military expedition in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia and Eritea). It was led by the Corps of Royal Engineers, to move thousands of soldiers and animals across the arid region, and stirred stirred scandals internationally.

Engravings from 1868’s Illustrated London News show tube wells being tested by a large group of engineers in Surrey before the expedition. They were subsequently used to provide water for 7,000 transport animals in Koomaylee, Abyssinia. Precious stones were said to be found and looted in the process of digging these wells.

Patents of the Artesian tube well

Anthony Acciavatti

2025, US

Courtesy of the artist

You can touch this work.

This compilation of patent drawings and licences traces the tube well’s global journey. It begins in 1865 with Byron Mudge’s patent for an “Improved Method of Sinking Wells” in Cortlandville, New York, designed for both domestic and military use. The technology gained international prominence with James Lee Norton’s London patent in 1867, merging Mudge's method with his own pumping machinery.

These documents highlight the tube well's evolving uses, supporting agricultural innovations worldwide. Today over half of all agriculture is irrigated by water extracted in this way.

Portrait of Jakarta (Indonesia)

Anthony Acciavatti

2024, USA
aluminium Di-Bond Print.
Courtesy of the artist

This view of Jakarta, seen from the bay, visualises the city’s relationship to its multi-layered aquifer. Groundwater overextraction, paired with sea level rise, has put Jakarta in a perilous situation. The city rapidly sinking, and saltwater is infiltrating its freshwater reserves. The weight of large towers built along the city’s main roads is speeding up the rate of subsidence.

Portrait of New Delhi (India)

Anthony Acciavatti

2024, USA

Aluminium Di-Bond Print.

Courtesy of the artist

This image of the New Delhi metropolitan region shows the vastness of its aquifer in relation to its urban form. The drawing highlights the drastic difference in the depth of the water table in the area. This makes underground water extraction a much more expensive endeavour along the western areas of the metropolitan region. The water table is much shallower along the eastern edge which allows easier access to this resource.

Portrait of Phoenix / Tucson (USA)

Anthony Acciavatti
2024, USA
Aluminium Di-Bond Print.
Courtesy of the artist

The Phoenix / Tucson mega-region’s urban sprawl dominates its ancient aquifer. This drawing highlights the thousands of tubewells that extract water faster than it can be replenished. It demonstrates the impact of the water extraction technologies that support agriculture and urban lifestyles.

Hanging models inverted core samples of Jakarta, New Delhi and Phoenix-Tucson Megaregion

Anthony Acciavatti

2025, USA

Wood, mesh, acrylic, wire

Courtesy of the artist

Please do not touch the work.

In the centre of this space are three upside-down models of the layers of rock or sediment found beneath the Earth's surface in three locations. The tube wells and their impact on respective water tables are indicated.

They visualise the long-term effects of water overdraft in the cities of Jakarta and New Delhi, and the Phoenix-Tucson megaregion. While Phoenix-Tucson’s population is much less dense than the two others, in all three regions, the depleted aquifers are causing major subsidence. The compacting of dry soil causes the gradual sinking of urban areas and the emergence of sink holes and kilometre-long fissures appearing across the Earth’s surface. Jakarta is the fastest sinking city in the world.

Epilogue

Sometimes farther than the sun

Raqs Media Collective
Mamoru Watanabe (AR App developer)

2025

Augmented reality on iPad, vinyl, paint

Courtesy of the artists

You can touch this work.

If the Earth ran out of freshwater, where could we search for it?

The second reflection by Raqs Media Collective on thirst is an interactive augmented reality installation. It opens up a speculative future in which human survival depends on the search for and the mining of water from asteroids.

The artists’ virtual imagining of water mining in space is superimposed over the space containing Anthony Acciavatti’s inverted models of Earth’s strata. The digital overlay draws attention to the extractivist approach shared by asteroid water-mining and the tube well, and creates an, as yet, impossible reality. 

Viewed through the iPad screen, water-rich asteroids orbit in patterns, like drops converging into an infinite cosmic ocean. Larger asteroids morph into a form reminiscent of a stepwell, connecting the search for water and the source itself.

Acknowledgements

Curator

Janice Li

Exhibition Manager

Bryony Harris

Registrars

Lisa Evans
David Chan
Marianne Templeton

Technical Manager

Chris Kingham

Conservators

Kath Knowles
Robert Spicer
Jillian Gregory 

Audiovisual Producers

Jeremy Bryans
Ricardo Barbosa
Ollie Isaac
Jakub Wolowiec

Exhibition design

Material Cultures

Graphic design

Wolfe Hall

Lighting design

Steensen Varming

Interpretation Advisors

Minnie Scott Sonya Kunawicz

Exhibition Technicians

Lawrence Corby
Keith Martin
Charles Froud
Clem Routledge

Photography Production

Ben Gilbert
Beyond Print

Digital Guide Producer

Adam Rose

Audio guide

VocalEyes
Louise Fryer
Joshua McCrow

BSL guide

Samuel Dore
Deepa Shastri
Samuel Calder-Bray
Ollie Isaac
Ricardo Barbosa

Exhibition build

MER Services

Thatch wall

Mark Harrington
Mollie McMillen
Material Cultures

Ceramic letters

Charlotte Moore with Wolfe Hall

Graphic Production

Omni Colour
Taylor Bros

We would like to thank all of the artists, lenders, contributors, researchers and colleagues who have generously lent their works, expertise and ideas, and have contributed to the planning and the delivery of the exhibition.

Additional thanks to:

Ruth Horry, Adrian Pau, Lara Salha, Eris Williams-Reed, Julia Nurse, Angela Saward, Harriet Martin and Alice Carey at The Hub and Wellcome Legal for their contribution; and Delfina Foundation for hosting Karan Shrestha.

The following individuals and organisations have been integral to the research, development and realisation of the exhibition:

Yasmine Hafez, Ross MacFarlane, Moya Carey, Negar Sanaan Bensi, Fuchsia Hart, Zohre Mousavi, Hector A Orengo, International Centre of Biosaline Agriculture, Minority Rights Group International, World Mosquito Program, DHIS2, The Environmental Humanities Research Hub at the School of Advanced Study, Zelfo Technology, Julia Watson Studio, Hannah Watson, Martina Taranto, Sophie Schneider, Ahmed and Rashid Bin Shabib, Nora Razian, Museum of Islamic Art Cairo, Sara Kamalvand, Ali Mousavi, Simone Marchetti, Tiffany Leung, Zofia Trafas White and Amir J Afshar.

Where no credit line is shown on object labels, items have been purchased as material for the exhibition. We are committed to respecting copyright for works on display but if you have reason to believe any content infringes yours or someone else’s rights please contact a member of staff.

A programme of live events will accompany the exhibition. During Light’s Up opening times the gallery will have increased light levels. For Relaxed Openings the gallery will be quieter and have more even lighting. Please check wellcomecollection.org or ask a member of staff for more details.

Material Library

For this exhibition we have used bio-regenerative materials as part of an ongoing commitment to low carbon construction. Bio-regenerative materials are natural products, minimally processed that will never become waste. This has been carefully developed by design studios Material Cultures and Wolfe Hall with our Conservation team to ensure a safe environment for the items on display.

The entrance wall is made from UK-sourced reeds, rushes and grasses created by a master thatcher Mark Harrington and expert weaver Mollie McMillen. The temporary walls inside the gallery are made from wetland fibres, hemp, wheat and straw. Artist Charlotte Moore created the ceramic letterings to respond to each water condition in the exhibition.

Please touch the samples.

Thatch wall

Reed: Reed is one of the world’s most widely grown wetland plants. Low moisture reed harvested in winter can be used as a raw material for craft and construction. A reed straw roof can last for 50–100 years. It is also used as water treatment system. 

Willow: Willow relies heavily on a continuously moist environment and supports the survival of many woodland insects and invertebrates. It can be used for shelter construction, basket production and stabilising riverbanks. Salicylic acid, a key ingredient in aspirin, is extracted from willow bark.

Sedge: Sedge thrives in moist habitats such as bogs, brackish water marshes, and mountain meadows. It is an important food source within the wetland ecosystem. It was also used as a valuable crop and roof ridge material in Middle Ages Britain, as well as for weaving and in medicinal ingredients by indigenous communities in North America.

Wheat straw: Cereals like wheat have been grown in the UK for at least 7,000 years. Cereal farming occupies 71% of local agriculture, producing 7 million tonnes of straw annually. Straw absorbs and stores carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Building with straw offers a cost-effective and functional solution for carbon storage. 

Exhibition Boards

Strawboard: This biobased strawboard from German manufacturer Strohplattenwerk Mürit uses mineral binders instead of conventional toxic adhesives. This enables plant fibres to be employed in insulation and furnishing.

Wheat board: Industrial hemp matures in 100 days, requires minimal water and needs no pesticides. Its high cellulose content also makes it an excellent wood alternative. UK-based Loam Project crafts hemp boards with sugar resin from agricultural waste, which lighten in colour over time like timber.

Wetland and wheat fibreboard: Brandenburg-based Zelfo uses innovative technology to break down plant fibres at a microscopic level, enabling tight binding. These boards, composed of wetland plants and wheat straw, are bound together by physical compression without chemicals, resulting in a healthy, biodegradable and strong material.

Title Ceramics

In Search of Freshwater: Glazed stoneware with porcelain slip (a liquid clay made of clay and water). Tension and cracking were created during the shrinkage of wet slip over fired ceramic, like a drying riverbed. 

Aridity: Glazed stoneware with plant matter slip; plants are mixed native wildflowers found growing in London riverbeds.

Rain: Stoneware with stoneware slip. Wet slip was left in the rain to create a pattern of water droplets.

Glaciers: Stoneware with crystalline glaze. Metallic compounds suspended in water during the application of glaze bloom upon firing, like ice crystals.

Surface Water: Stoneware with carvings alluding to texture created by rivulets of water running through sediment.

Groundwater: Stoneware with London clay collected form Brixton near the lost River Effra. Water was reduced in the clay before pressing.