Raising a glass to the doctor who cleaned up water

26 July 2010

Naturally you knew that last week was National Plughole Week - my apologies for ever doubting it.

The event has a serious aim, which is to raise money for Oxfam’s water sanitation work in developing countries.

It also highlights the point that few of us take baths any more as we are far too busy. A couple of minutes in the shower is all we have time for these days.

I have no doubt that this finding will further fuel builders’ obsession with showers, as all new properties now seem to have shower rooms in every corner.

And by the way, what are plasma televisions in showers all about? It’s nonsense - who goes into the shower to watch Corrie?

But builders seem bent on rolling two rooms into one, and here I think they have missed a trick. A separate kitchen is something mum and dad had. These days houses are all built with kitchen diners or breakfast kitchens which, as we know, are lounges with an oven in the corner.

But why not go the whole hog and build houses with kitchen bathrooms? Think of the time you could save in the morning. What could be more convenient than sitting on the loo while frying your sausages? It may not be to everyone’s taste but at least give me credit for thinking outside the box.

Anyway, I reckon we are too obsessed with health these days, and that kids need to be exposed to a bit of grime to build up their natural defences.

Snow closed the Broad Street pump and saved the lives of thousands of Londoners by doing so

Some 40 years ago I was a Cub Scout and every year we went to camp to learn how to start a fire by rubbing wet twigs together.

For a week we washed our mugs in the nearby river which was more polluted than the Ganges on curry night. But you know what - every last one of us survived.

Of course, we haven’t always been in such a privileged situation and as recently as 1854 London was strangled by a cholera epidemic.

At this point, doff your cap to one Dr John Snow because it was he who traced the source of the disease to dirty water from a pump in Soho’s Broad Street.

Snow noticed that almost every household in the area had suffered a cholera fatality except those occupied by workers at the nearby brewery. A perk of the job was to be able to drink as much beer as they wanted and crucially the water supply for the beer came from another source. Like all of us, they opted for beer over water and as a result survived.

Snow closed the Broad Street pump and saved thousands of lives by doing so. The site of the pump can still be seen and the pub adjacent has been renamed John Snow to commemorate the man and his contribution to London’s sanitation and health.

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