# When Big Cities Like London or Paris First Built Proper Sewerage Systems, Was That Politically Controversial? <cite>by u/theytookthemall</cite> ## Metadata - Author: [[Reddit]] - Full Title: When Big Cities Like London or Paris First Built Proper Sewerage Systems, Was That Politically Controversial? - Link: https://reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/pnnneu/when_big_cities_like_london_or_paris_first_built ###### Outline - [[theory wasnt necessary for understanding contaminated drinking water]] - [[disproportionate effects impact the solvability of known problems]] ## Highlights ### germ theory wasn't necessary for understanding contaminated drinking water > John Snow and his famous map of cholera cases was radical specifically because he posited that cholera came from drinking water contaminated with something bad, rather than something in the air. The prevailing theory was that if you could keep the stink away from you, you'd be fine. > > the public health consequences of open sewers, leaky/overflowing cesspits, and the horrific state of the Thames were widely known and acknowledged. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgy2spat10esaywky57m3zw3) ### 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)