Sanitation is an essential public health service, so where is the outrage at the pollution of England’s waterways, ask these authors
Recently the dire state of the UK’s rivers was highlighted once again when rowers in the annual Oxford vs Cambridge boat race were taken unwell. They criticised the levels of sewage and high rates of e-coli in the river Thames.1 The organisers of the boat race declared “bathing is prohibited” and warned against throwing the cox into the water as is tradition.2
It had echoes of a visit that Queen Victoria made to Cambridge University back in 1843. Gwen Reverat, a local historian recounts:
“ There is a tale of Queen Victoria being shown over Trinity by the Master, Dr Whewell, and saying, as she looked down over the bridge: 'What are all those pieces of paper floating down the river?' To which, with great presence of mind, he replied: 'Those, ma'am, are notices that bathing is forbidden.’” 3
But maybe we need to cast our minds back to the time of Queen Victoria and the sanitarian revolution during her reign. It was the 1848 Public Health Act that gave England and Wales the possibility of clean water and sanitation, but …
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