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Steve Reed speech on water legislation; ENGLAND: London: Putney: Thames Rowing Club: INT Steve Reed MP (Environment Secretary) speech SOT (part 1 of 6) - I’m delighted there’s so many people here from the many, many sectors who have an interest in water. It’s important that we’re all here together from the different sectors because it is only by being together that I think we can find the answers to finally resolve this very profound problem that we have with the state of our water in this country. If we were standing where we are now in the summer of 1858, we’d be overwhelmed by noxious fumes rising from the Thames, the result of a toxic mix of untreated sewage, refuse from livestock, chemical waste from factories. The smell became so bad people were fainting in the streets, Parliament had to soak their blinds in a chloride of lime. Public health was at risk. The stench, notorious in history as the Great Stink of 1858, reached such a point that the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Benjamin Disraeli, was compelled to intervene. On 15 July, Disraeli addressed the House of Commons. He lamented the demise of the Thames into, I quote, “a Stygian pool reeking with ineffable and intolerable horrors” and asked for leave to introduce a Bill that, in his words, would “attempt to terminate a state of affairs so unsatisfactory and fraught with so much danger to public health”. This legislation became law on 2 August. In step, civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazelgette was tasked to revolutionise the sewage system. Between 1859 and 1875, 82 miles of underground sewers and over 1,000 miles of street sewers were built under Bazelgette’s guiding hand, stopping the free flow of sewage into the Thames. This prevented bacteria entering drinking water, saving thousands of lives from cholera. Bazelgette’s work was remarkable. But it was not in isolation. Water infrastructure was being built around the country. Near Manchester, John Frederick Bateman w...