The yards in which the houses are built in are dark, dirty and very unhealthy places to live in. All the garbage is thrown in to the yard and streets from windows and doors.
The cellars in which the poor people live in are worse.
“We live in a cellar in Liverpool. There are 5 of us in one room, my mother and I in one corner and in the other, three sailors. In both corners we have a straw bed on the ground. The cellar floor is always wet with at least two inches of water. Some people even have to share their cellars with animals.”
Several families share the privies. There is no drainage for the waste to be taken to the sewers, but they have a cesspit, which is not cleared out by night-soilmen because the landlords do not want to pay the night-soilmen to clear the cesspit so the are left to overflow. Sometimes they are not cleared for six months. This causes the most terrible smells imaginable. This also leads to diseases.
Some houses do not even have privies to go to, they have a designated area on the floor.
Some houses were built next to stinking rivers.
“A two year old boy who lived near the river suddenly started to vomit and have diarrhoea. Within a few hours he was blue-black. His eyes sank in to the head. The skin went cold. The child struggled for breath and died.”
There have been many deaths similar to this. Just because of the dirty river. The water that the poor people drink is from the river which has all the dirt in it, because they empty their daily rubbish into it.
This is a picture of the sample we took.
Doctor have suggested that the causes of the cholera epidemics are:-
Poor living conditions
Polluted drinking water
Dirt in the streets and houses
Dirty and smelly rivers
Overcrowding
“He has very bad health and his wife has rheumatism. The water in front of the house has collected from various sources. The yard has never been dry since they came to it. There is a sump-hole, a great depth in one corner, made by the landlord, to take away the water, but it is full of deposit. The stench is often so bad, and especially after rain, that he and his wife cannot bear the smell.”
Cholera is no the only disease which is caused by polluted drinking water. Other diseases are:-
Rheumatism
Bronchitis
TB
Typhus
Typhoid
But cholera is the worst of them all. Cholera has had the highest death rate.
It has been suggested that the contaminated pump on Broad Street is the source for the spread of cholera.
