### class-based disproportionate effects impact the solvability of known problems > Money. The cost was the primary concern. London was already a big city and was growing fast, and everyone knew that getting all that sewage (and its toxic miasma) out of there was going to be a big, complicated, and expensive project. Prior to the Great Stink, some people in power argued that dumping effluent in the Thames whisked it away, despite clear evidence to the contrary: the flow of the river simply wasn't enough to deal with the volume of waste, and the Thames is a tidal river. Stuff got a few miles downstream...and then was promptly washed back upstream when the tide came in. > It's worth considering one of the main reasons why the Great Stink was such a turning point: the Houses of Parliament are right on the river, and they were forced to confront the situation that many people had been living with for decades. #articleseed/addendum [[2022-08-01 Sewers]] - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgy2rp4mdawxy3qzjqc5kk7v) - [[why London sewers were politically controversial#class-based disproportionate effects impact the solvability of known problems|View in Vault]]