[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.