[stncls]

Tap water. I can't stop marveling at the fact that we have (mostly) unlimited, clean, drinkable water on demand and virtually for free.

But also many other things, many of which others have mentioned here (cars, mass housing, garbage collection, electronics).

So much so that I feel frustration at the fact that in my job, I do not participate in human society making any of these fascinating things possible; and I have decided that my next career move will have to make me part of the supply chain of one such thing, even if I am just the tiniest of links.

[pixl97]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Leal

Chlorinated water is a pretty recent invention at about 115 years now. Most interestingly it was first done without permission and the only reason Leal wasn't jailed for it was the immediate positive impact on health.

[davis]

Wow, that's absolutely fascinating. Thanks for sharing that history

[mrmuagi]

Sewage is interesting too! Having to pump against elevation, making the water usable for other purposes, etc.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpHOkHxpTvQ

[voiper1]

+1 for "Practical Engineering". He has an amazing series on making a new pump station called Practical Construction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdcXkmvXXwU&list=PLTZM4MrZKf...

[ksec]

>Tap water. I can't stop marveling at the fact that we have (mostly) unlimited, clean, drinkable water on demand and virtually for free.

Somewhat unfortunately a lot of Tab Water in even developed countries today aren't drinkable without going through a very decent filter.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

"Isn't palatable" isn't the same as "isn't drinkable".

[alephnerd]

A lot of developed (HDI greater than 0.8 and GDP per Capita greater than 13k) countries don't have regulations similar to the "Clean Water Act".

Turkey, Hungary, Cyprus, the Baltics outside the capital city, Malaysia, and Romania are great example of that.

[ksec]

I am not entirely sure if Lead or other heavy metal content in Water is consider Drinkable.

[Tagbert]

true, but significant lead in the water is a failure mode, not considered a normal state of most drinking water in developed areas. Generally, when found, some action is taken to address the contamination (unless there is some other regulatory failure, such as in Detroit).

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

While lead is generally considered to not be drinkable, even in desperation, no one's putting the Brita water filters on their faucets to remove lead, and it's silly to even suggest it.

[Solvency]

CLEAN? LOL.

[wouldbecouldbe]

Tap water is actually a re-invention.

You're supposed to just be able to drink out of the river, but due to our own pollution and the lack of build up to diseases in the water we can't drink it directly anymore.

[perihelions]

I prefer "disease-free water" to "water containing unpleasant pathogens that probably won't kill me, because I've already gotten sick from them many times and maintain natural immunity".

Also, immunocompromised people deserve life too. Physically weak humans wouldn't survive in the natural-selection world that preceded civilization—the purpose of human civilization is escaping, nullifying, the brutal morality of the natural world and substituting our own.

Clean water is a gift of life.

[wouldbecouldbe]

Animals are fine, and so are people who grow up drinking that. It probably strengthens certain parts of the immune system.

The main reason we need to purify it is because of the stuff humans put in it.

[iteria]

You're forgetting the people who absolutely were not fine. If those people die in childhood often enough, that eventually gets removed from or significantly reduced in the gene pool, but people have to die first. It's like asthma. Those kids used to just die. Now we have inhalers, so it appears like asthma is on the rise when it's more that less people die from it. It looks like adults who grow up drinking that water are fine, but you're ignoring the toddlers who died from drinking that water.

[troupo]

There's even a whole Wikipedia page on waterborne diseases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterborne_disease

[pixl97]

I have to respond here with "WTF are you talking about". You are engaging in the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalistic_fallacy without use of your critical thinking facilities. Any water source that has rotting plant material, or is exposed to the feces of animals puts you at high risk of serious illness. Some water sources will have natural bacterial contamination and/or mineral contamination (think arsenic).

Absolutely huge portions of the human population died to water quality issues before the 20th century.

[Freebytes]

He is also saying that animals are fine. Animals are not fine. Many animals that consume water out of the river only live for five years or so. Diseases still get them.

[wouldbecouldbe]

What are you talking about, almost all animals in wild live longer dan in captivity in Western Zoos. That's def. due to stress, but it means purified human water isn't a bigger factor then stress & movement. Animals and humans aren't stupid, we have an idea what water is safer then others.

[wruza]

How do you know that animals are fine?

[Workaccount2]

Because you only see the ones who are doing fine.

[marcosdumay]

This.

Animals in nature are incredibly healthy. You won't see any with even a deep cut.

[daddylongstroke]

? Because we raise them, live with them, watch them live a long and healthy life?

[pixl97]

"If you ignore the worms it's all good!"

[daddylongstroke]

And you should, as they're largely beneficial.

[adverbly]

> due to our own pollution and the lack of build up to diseases in the water

I'm not sure this is exactly correct. Modern people still need to boil water to safely drink it even if the water comes from a remote area which does not have any pollution or disease.

You are right that it is a reinvention though because we used to do this regularly because we had antibodies and other things which could handle whatever was in the water in small quantities. Everything we have now is so pure that our immune and digestive systems can't handle anything that isn't pure anymore.

[marcosdumay]

> Everything we have now is so pure that our immune and digestive systems can't handle anything that isn't pure anymore.

Ancient people were just ok with some risk of dying.

We can probably cope better with a bit of contamination than almost everybody through history. But we accept even less risk.

[BirAdam]

Infant mortality was high for a reason. Some people may have been able to handle it, but not all. Even today, people in remote areas living as they always have with “clean” environments die of parasites, bacterial infections, and so on from their water sources.

[kwhitefoot]

> Modern people still need to boil water to safely drink i

Not everywhere. Drinking water in the little town I live in in Norway is merely filtered and a little aluminium sulphate added to precipitate out the solids. You absolutely could have drunk the water before that treatment with no ill effects. That's because it comes from a lake high in the hills above any industrial or agricultural activity.

[pixl97]

>That's because it comes from a lake high in the hills above any industrial or agricultural activity.

Half correct, but not completely correct..

I'm also assuming it remains very cold or even frozen for a huge portion of the year. The water is never getting to a temperature that allows much of the dangerous things to humans to grow. For example here in Texas you're apt to get amoebas in the 25-35C waters.

Also that high in the mountains you're probably getting water off mineral rock that's had very few interactions with the biosphere to accumulate wastes from animals.

You don't need industrial or agricultural activity to kill you.

[kube-system]

Industrial and agricultural pollution are not the only potential pollutants in tap water. There are natural sources of viruses, bacteria, and parasites that exist.

[wouldbecouldbe]

Of course diseases still happen, but overall streams in mountains, wells etc. were relatively safe.

Cities with human feces, and factories still dumping waste mostly destroyed water ways.

It's state of water in most modern countries is disgusting.

Humans didn't have time to boil water before electricity & modern kitchen.

[pixl97]

>Humans didn't have time to boil water before electricity & modern kitchen.

Again, you seemingly have very little knowledge of history at all. Outbreaks of waterborne diseases could happen at any time from a single bad water source. Just look up historical rates of dysentery. Humans in the past fermented and drank far more beer like substances for this reason.

Humans in the past also just fucking died... Anti-biotics and the chlorination of water explains the take-off rate of human population starting around 1900. Before then human populations were self limiting (and this goes for most animal populations too), when you get too many people or animals in one place, they pollute their own water. There was no 're-invention' here. Your entire premise sucks and does not reflect reality.

[wouldbecouldbe]

Maybe I think a bit further down.

[asia92]

You'll get parasites and random organisms if you consume water like that

[wouldbecouldbe]

Note, for those thinking I'm foolish. This an example of the last decades. Amazon Tribes are forced to now use rainwater tanks with "taps"; since the Oil companies came decades ago the water in stream & rivers are not drinkable anymore.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/28/a...

So that's what I mean with a re-invention, tap-water is mostly needed due to human caused pollution.

Now were there pathogen in the rivers, for sure, did they get sick sometimes, most likely. Did it cause higher child mortality, I haven't been able to find data for or against that. But overall they were fine & it's up for debate whether those being exposed to small amounts of pathogens were a win or lose in the long run (some theories suggest our lack of pathogens are connected to auto-immune diseases & allergies)

Also our cities of course bring a lot of sewage issues causing another issue with water streams.

[AlecSchueler]

Going to the stream with a bucket is still a lot more effort than turning a tap. And don't forget the hot water that can also come out!

[knowaveragejoe]

"You're supposed to just be able to drink out of the river" seems incorrect at best

[zild3d]

Pretty much since we stopped being nomadic / developed more sedentary agricultural societies