Water, sanitation and health in the first industrial society: Britain 1780 – 1930

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Did the provision of piped water, municipalisation of waterworks, water filtration, sewerage and sewage treatment improve mortality rates in towns? When, where, and how?

Using a comprehensive panel of urban registration districts that includes substantial chronological and geographical heterogeneities in investments and mortality improvements, we will employ fixed-effects models to identify the (lagged) impacts of specific investments on mortality components after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. WaSH interventions include the cumulative value of loans for specific purposes 1817-1913/14 (Harris & Hinde 2019), and local government expenditures relating to water and sanitation 1875-1911 (Aidt et al. 2022), as well as the municipal purchase of private water companies (Beach et al. 2016). Mortality outcomes are life expectancy (1838-84), infant mortality (1838-1911), crude mortality from all causes (1838-1911), typhoid (1869-1911), typhus (1869-1911), and diarrhoea (per infant and total populations, 1856-1911).

Specific sub-questions are:

• What types of intervention were associated with reductions in death rates? Which age groups or diseases were affected?
• Was there a consistent relationship between investments and mortality outcomes over time? Did it differ between towns with different economic and geographical characteristics?
• Were investments in water and sewerage synergistic?
• Did the public acquisition of waterworks improve mortality outcomes?

Outputs

Information to follow.

Banner image credits: Construction of Burrator Reservoir, by R.B. Smart (1881 – 1947), photo credit The Box, Plymouth; Thirsty (1883) by M.A. Jameson (1851-1919), photo credit Brampton Museum CC BY-NC licence; Rivington Lakes by R.W. Hulme (1816-1884), photo credit Bolton Library & Museum Services, Bolton Council, CC BY-NC-ND license.