A Comm for Historymemes

Which is funny because sewer systems pre-dated the European colonial empire by a few hundred years, in Europe

True, but "tossing your excrement out the window" has always been a no-no.

Solids go to the night-soil man for fertilizer. Liquids go in the barrel on the corner for tanning or laundry. There were some rudimentary sewer systems; they were just sorely underengineered.

Another big dung-related problem that urban areas had was all the horse manure. The amount of horse manure that had to be collected and moved and sequestered every day was enormous, and the streets were muddy in no small part from urine.

Haworth , the village the Brontës lived in, is another ghastly example. The conditions where so unsanitary that in 1850 the average life expectancy was 25.8 years and more than 40% died before the age of 6.

Except for Charlotte Brontë who made it to 38, all the Brontë children died by 31. And they probably didn't even drink the water contaminated by runoff from the graveyard, as they had their own water source.

Another fun fact for the history nerds: B. Herschel Babbage, the guy who investigated the conditions on the invitation of the Brontë sisters' father, was the son of mathematician Charles Babbage, the inventor of the Analytical Engine.

Love these explanations!

It's more a "let's privatise public services so shareholders can make money at everyone's expense" problem.

Perhaps some CEOs and MPs need some effluent in their proximity to understand what's at stake.

I wonder what size (and density) cities there were in Africa at the time. The British problems were due to rapid urbanization due to industrialization, latter which is often considered a mark of development (which is considered by some a mark of "civilization"). I don't think you could say Africa in general was very urbanized at the time.