Over a century ago, Victorian Britain was facing a big problem. As the Industrial Revolution got underway, many more people moved into the cities where the majority of the work could be found. Populations in the cities increased rapidly during this period of time, and there was a desperate need for more housing to be built quickly to support this new larger population.

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However, this also brought with it different problems – one of the big ones being the fact that of course a large population like this in close proximity to one another will all be sharing a relatively small space. The way that people tended to dispose of waste water as well as human waste in those days was to throw it out of the window and onto the streets.

With so many more people doing this, the river Thames as well as the streets of London of course become overrun with dirty water and waste. It didn’t take long for large swathes of people to start becoming sick and dying from illnesses caused by this dirty environment, such as cholera. The problem became so bad that during one summer the streets had become putrid and many of the wealthier people fled the city for fear of succumbing to the illness.

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It was a problem that parliament could no longer ignore, as the stench had penetrated through the walls of Westminster and was in the heart of parliament. It was then that the plan was put in place for the sewers, so that the dirt could all be underground and away from the human population, reducing the stench as well as the levels of illness that were being experienced in London as well as other cities of the UK at the time.

As this monumental job started, it became apparent that this was a good solution. Over the next few years, the rates of water borne illnesses in London reduced massively, and the sewers were introduced to other large cities too with great success. Many of the sewers we have nowadays are the ones that were originally built over 100 years ago in fact – companies like this sewer pipe lining Solihull based company https://www.wilkinson-env.co.uk/sewer-repairs-drain-lining-concrete-cutting/drain-repairs/drain-repairs-wolverhampton/ are fortunately on hand to continue to maintain them and ensure that we are free of the water borne illnesses that plagued Victorian Britain.