Talk:History of water supply and sanitation

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The page does not talk about sanitation? Consider name change?
This page has sanitation in the title but it doesn't talk about sanitation. Therefore, its name should be changed. The history of sanitation is covered on the "sanitation" page. EvM-Susana (talk) 12:18, 29 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, a while back I mentioned some Mesoamerican systems (specifically, the flush toilets at Palenque), but I see your point. I will try to remedy this by discussing some Indus Valley Civilization and perhaps some Andean Civilizations; this would also help with the bias towards Western achievements in the field. Jamutaq (talk) 19:43, 9 April 2015 (UTC)
 * Sounds good, thanks. Keep in mind that the term "sanitation" does not restrict itself to sewer systems though, therefore I still wonder if the title of the page will be fitting in the longer term. Might be better as "history of piped water supply and sewer systems"? The history of sanitation might be better covered in the article on sanitation?EvM-Susana (talk) 08:13, 10 April 2015 (UTC)
 * I've taken another look and found that sanitation is covered here and there but it wasn't very well structured. Actually the section on "modern age" only had information on water treatment; I have corrected that now and added links to other pages where e.g. the history of toilets is covered in detail. It's a bit better now but could still do with more work.EvMsmile (talk) 11:39, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I agree that there either needs to be more information covering sanitation whether it be the sanitation of water for the purpose of drinking, filtration in sewage systems, or for reusing water. This could be discussed in a historical factual way and incorporate how the current methods vary around the world and why that is. --Madagascar20 (talk) 15:46, 15 October 2020 (UTC)
 * @Madagascar20, actually I think the page has got quite a lot of content on sanitation by now (my earlier comment above was from four years ago). Overall, the article is still a bit messy and some "history" aspects are covered in various other articles (like in toilet), so there is a bit of overlap and inefficiencies there. EMsmile (talk) 07:14, 9 November 2020 (UTC)

Blacklisted Links Found on History of water supply and sanitation
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 * I can't find this link on the page. I guess it must have been removed by now? EvMsmile (talk) 11:43, 7 January 2016 (UTC)

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Plans on merging information from Sewage collection and disposal
As discussed on Talk:Sewage_collection_and_disposal, information from there should be merged here. Therefore I transfered the main information from Sewage_collection_and_disposal to this article.Mll mitch (talk) 11:46, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Articles which could be useful
There is this article in Nature News from May 2016 which may contain some content to be added to this article, if someone has time: http://www.nature.com/news/the-secret-history-of-ancient-toilets-1.19960 EvMsmile (talk) 06:22, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

Here is another article about history of sanitation in Greece. Content from here could be included if someone has time: http://washdev.iwaponline.com/content/7/2/163?etoc EMsmile (talk) 13:53, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

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Content from other page that could be merged to here
The following content had been added to the article on WASH but it doesn't fit there. It should rather be merged into here, but might already be included, I am not sure. Also only one reference is used and it's possible that content was copied from there (I haven't checked that yet). User:WishWash could you please merge your content into this article? Oh and by the way, a lot of the history information deals with countries in Europe. Can we also come up with a history section for developing countries? EMsmile (talk) 11:41, 25 October 2017 (UTC)

Ancient History
The history of the search for drinkable water for humans and cattle and how to manage the waste we produce began before the first urbanization.

Early settlements in Jericho from 8000–7000 B.C. were located near springs and other bodies of water. In Egypt there are traces of wells, and in Mesopotamia of stone rainwater channels, from 3000 B.C.. From the early Bronze Age city of Mohenjo-Daro, located in modern Pakistan, archaeologists have found hundreds of ancient wells, water pipes and toilets. The first evidence of the purposeful construction of the water supply, bathrooms, toilets and drainage in Europe comes from Bronze Age Minoan (and Mycenaean) Crete in the second millennium B.C.

Ancient Greece and Rome
The first urbanization in Europe occurred during antiquity (500 B.C. – 500 A.D.) around the Mediterranean region. Alcmaeon of Croton (floruit ca. 470 B.C.) was the first Greek doctor to state that the quality of water may influence the health of people. (Aëtius, On the opinions of the philosophers V.30.1). Pliny the Elder in the first century A.D. had in his works a long section concerning the different opinions on what kind of water is the best. (Plinius NH, XXXI, xxi–xxiii). One of the most famous doctors during antiquity Galen (2nd century A.D.) summarises the preferable qualities of water (Galen. De Sanitate Tuenda. I.xi). The quality of the water was examined by the senses: taste, smell, appearance and temperature. Throughout antiquity tasty or tasteless, cool, odourless and colourless water was considered the best, and stagnant, marshy water was avoided. These ideas were held until the end of antiquity as expressed by Palladius (5th century, Opus Agriculturae. I, 4) or Paulus Aeginata (7th century, Paulus Aeginata I.50). Water supply and sanitation for military needs was a primary concern of the authorities of an imperial power like the Roman Empire needing a strong military machine. Agriculture depended on the proper amount of available water. Food, people and pathogens moved most easily by water during antiquity. Maritime trade was especially vigorous around the Mediterranean in the period 200 B.C.– 200 A.D.

The breeding of mosquitoes depended on water and mosquitoes spread malaria, which was a serious and widespread health problem around the Mediterranean during antiquity. Malaria was well documented by Greek and Roman medical authors from the Hippocratic writings onwards. Among the cases in Epidemics I and III, a serious complication of chronic malaria, blackwater fever, has been identified by Mirko D. Grmek at least in one patient, Philiscus, but probably also in another, Pythion.

The Second Urbanization
After the fall of the Roman Empire, water supply and sewage systems experienced fundamental changes in Europe. The start of industrialization and the related growth of cities created a situation where public health and environmental problems overwhelmed city governments to a greater degree than before, and novel technology was often seen as the solution.

In the 19th century, Great Britain was seen as the forerunner of modern water supply and sanitation systems, but the innovations soon spread to Germany, other parts of Europe, USA and later also elsewhere .Sanitation in towns around Europe was one of the great achievements of the 19th century. During the century the role of water in the transmission of several important diseases – cholera, dysentery, typhoid fever and diarrhea – was realized. In 1854 it was discovered that a cholera epidemic spread through water. The outbreak seemed less severe in areas where sand filters were installed. British scientist John Snow found that the direct cause of the outbreak was water pump contamination by sewage water. He used chlorine to purify the water, and this paved the way for water disinfection. The conclusion was finally drawn that good taste and smell alone do not guarantee safe drinking water. This discovery led to governments starting to install municipal water filters (sand filters and chlorination). This served as a justification for the sanitary movement around the world in the 19th century.

An explanation of recent changes, please?
User:Backendgaming, you made a bunch of big changes to the article without a single explanation in the edit summary. Perhaps you forgot. For us others who are watching the page it would be really helpful if you could tell us a bit on what you changed/re-arranged and why? I am not saying it's wrong but it would be helpful to know this. Also if you took content from other Wikipedia articles or if you made it all up from scratch, using those references that you cited. Thanks.EMsmile (talk) 13:04, 31 October 2017 (UTC)

Indigenous American history
Hello - I was wondering if there were any experts who could add details about water supply and sanitization for the Americas? I'm currently reading An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and it has information regarding the extent of irrigation that was being used at the time the colonizers arrived. Are there any experts available who could expand this page with this information? Fracturing (talk) 19:03, 4 June 2020 (UTC) Brandie

Poor quality section
There's an odd section under Medieval Islamic history that has lots of typos and very sweeping generalizations, thought I should point it out! 2603:300A:1714:3960:9490:E0DE:4797:92A9 (talk) 05:30, 1 June 2024 (UTC)