The Great British Stink

Clever exhibition in the public space at London Bridge pier organised by Water Aid looking at how the Victorians solved water, sewage and hygiene problems and comparing this to the current situation in developing countries and the great difference small changes to improve water quality can bring them.

I do like this new trend to put an exhibition in the street and this one was particularly nicely designed with each information board being edged in plumping pipes and values. The Victorian side was shown via photographs by Thomas Ball showing some of the great Victorian projects to improve water quality. I loved the picture of the majestic Crossness Pumping Station as it is very close to where I live.

The photos were supported by people’s memories of water related issues (toilets etc) collected by Water Aid as part of the Big History Project. Some of these were fascinating and frightening recent such as a road in Cambridge in the 1960s which was still using a well contaminated by their own waste.  It made me remember an outside loo we had on a holiday in Wales where you could sit and look out at the mountains! Don’t worry it was isolated! It seemed exciting and rugged until I got frightened by a frog in it!

The exhibition then also drew parallels between these stories and projects Water Aid have worked on to show that you can solve these problems with simple solutions and the huge difference it can make to people’s lives.  For example they compared a 19th century campaigner in Manchester with one of their champions in Bangladesh.

We spent a year at work raising money for Water Aid and this show brought home to me the good work it does and the long lasting and huge benefit of simple solutions. It was worth eating all those cakes and walking round the park! 

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