Personal hygiene is clearly a strong issue in today’s society. However, during the 1830’s there was no such thing as being clean. In fact, how can the citizens expect to be well groomed if their city itself was not? There was scarcity of safe water in New York and this caused the death of many through yellow fever and cholera. Finally, when this issue was brought to the attention, approximately 340 pipes were built to hold and carry river water for many of its citizens. Only some of the best private houses had their own water facilities. Everyone else had to use the public bathroom for a price. Sewers were also built in the residential streets.
With no proper sanitation, it's a miracle that people even survived!
This issue strongly led to well grooming of the New York citizens. Every citizen was adversely affected by the lack of public facilities. After proper treatments were done, the city improved its sanitation. The rich obviously received better treatment simply because they can afford it whereas the low income citizens had to live by the public service which also had fees attached to the service. However, this change occurred for the betterment of the society for that period of time, and for the future.
As the population was facing yellow fever and cholera, the construction of public waterworks was very important. The death toll lowered and people where healthier. The sanitation needed improvement.
It’s really sad that the poorer population were not able to receive the same treatment as the richer ones, as they were all humans which means their health is just as important. I actually don’t believe that there should be a price on clean water as it is not man-made. It’s God’s creation and everyone should be able to have easy access to it.
It’s also refreshing to know that they actually installed pipes so people could have access to water, even though it wasn’t for free. But what can I say.. It’s better to pay for water to survive than to die.. 🙂
I agree with Jamie that it seems preposterous to charge money for water, making it inaccessible to the low income class. However the pipes needed to be constructed and maintained thereafter, so I can understand the reasoning. Eventually with enough income, the water company can expand and improve upon the sanitation of the city.