As the world entered the year 2020 and as it just left it behind, society as a whole faces a pressing battle against the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). While news outlets report daily increases in the number of infected people and the attention of the media is focused on the numerous and praiseworthy efforts of pharmaceutical and medical scientists and researchers, among other related areas of activity, it is common to forget the long-lasting victories in the control and reduction of pandemic crises in modern times. 

Throughout history, the reduction of pandemic occurrences and the spread of contagious diseases is, in fact, very much related to the development of infrastructures that directly impact the improvement of general public health, hygiene, and sanitation conditions. From the Cloaca Maxima, in ancient Rome, to Bazalgette’s sewer network of central London, the world is full of amazing contributions that have dramatically improved mankind’s life expectancy and decreased the number and extent of pandemics. What do such solutions have in common? Boldness, engineering and public governance!

Among the numerous contributions made by engineers and public servants to public health infrastructures, the massive implementation of water supply and wastewater treatment systems, sewage, and drainage systems stands out. These astonishing contributions were a result of a proper balance between engineering technical skills and a broader political vision that supported such public investments in infrastructures and the improvement of public health conditions.

Nowadays, the challenges of the creation and maintenance of such infrastructures are becoming increasingly demanding. By 1815, the population of London had risen to a little over 1.4 million inhabitants [1], while in 2020 the metro area holds about 9.3 million, whereas in Wuhan (the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic) there are more than 11 million inhabitants. In other cities, one finds even larger populations: e.g. Beijing (20 million inhabitants), New York City (18.8 million) or Tokyo (37.4 million) [2]. In addition to this increase in population across the globe, people’s consumption habits have changed considerably, thus posing new challenges to wastewater treatment and residues management, among other difficulties.

Of course, the growing number of automated management systems and the aid of numerical modelling tools and other engineering developments have been of great help in facing such challenging times. However, none of these wonders of public health infrastructure would have been possible without the boldness and engineering mindset demonstrated by many of our predecessors [3].

Among those, and thank goodness there were a great many, Sir Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890) stands as a paradigm of astonishing contributions that combined engineering and public governance, as he sought to improve the modern world and its ability to protect heavily populated regions from pandemic crises such as the ones we now face. (A detailed review on Sir Chadwick’s Biography is highly recommended in [4] and [5].)

Sir Chadwick was born in Manchester but moved to London at the age of ten; early on, he began to make a name for himself through his written contributions to the Morning Herald and other papers. His first article in the Westminster Review, written in 1828, articulated what he would later call the “sanitary idea”, and this would launch his bright career. By 1829, the article “Preventive Police” would put him in Sir Jeremy Bentham’s good graces [5] (Sir Bentham was known for his principle of utilitarianism and is often considered the spiritual founder of University College London [6]). Thanks to his hard work and impressive track record under Sir Bentham’s guidance, in 1832, Sir Chadwick was offered an assistant commissionership position on the Poor-Law Commission. He proved himself to be remarkably adept at collecting a vast array of information on the life conditions and abuses suffered by the poor masses in Victorian London. He was known to be a tireless investigator in a city where decrepit housing, disease, and the lack of clean water and sewerage where key causes for intolerable mortality rates [4]. His and the remaining Commissioners’ report in 1834 led to the Poor Law Amendment Act, which provided a solid foundation for the Poor Law Board, led by Sir Edwin Chadwick as first secretary; this board was responsible for issuing rules and orders to reform relief.

By this time, Sir Chadwick had clearly realised that in 19th Century London, poor health was the root of poverty. After all, how can the working class work, if it is ill? With this in mind, he then oriented his full efforts towards the pioneering improvement of public health laws and infrastructures and began to press for public health measures that to this day have proven to be so vital for the eradication of diseases and consequently, death and poverty [6].

Sir Chadwick advocated an interventionist posture against the non-interventionists who believed that poverty and disease were individual matters that had nothing to do with legislation or public governance. In fact, [5] describes the Commission’s three volume report, An Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain, as a landmark in social history which provided graphic descriptions of air pollution and how water, soil, and surroundings were key vehicles for the spread of disease, particularly in densely populated areas.

Despite the opposition, Sir Chadwick played a major role in passing the Public Health Act and the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Act in 1848. After his dazzling career in public service, where he planted the seeds of a centralised administration and uniform regulations for public health, he retired from the public sector in 1954. However, he continued with his crusade as lobbyist for the improvement of social reforms and the implementation of meaningful changes in society towards the enhancement of living conditions of the population as a whole.

One year before his death, in 1890, for his exemplary civilian merit, Edwin Chadwick received The Most Honourable Order of the Bath, an order of knighthood established by King George I in 1725. In fact, his reforming, ethical posture, and engineering spirit remain alive in the professorship established in his honour, the Chadwick Professor of Civil Engineering at University College London. It was initiated in 1898, by his son Osbert Chadwick, as the Chadwick Professorship of Municipal Engineering.

His systematic quantification and detailed description of physical variables and observation of social factors that contributed to the declining health conditions of the population were no more than a result of his ability to couple the engineering perspective with the public governance requirements at the time. I guess, some would wonder: is this not the practical manifestation of what we would nowadays call a holistic approach?

Sir Edwin Chadwick provided the legislative basis for massive implementation of basic sanitary conditions which would subsequently allow other geniuses such as Joseph Bazalgette, Abel Wolman, and others to build what we now take for granted, such as sewers, water supply systems, and numerous wonders that allow our cities to keep on functioning with amazingly lower mortality rates and dramatically fewer pandemic crises occurrences. In fact, the improvements in housing and living conditions, which have enabled us to face these unfortunate quarantines in a less painful and risky way, are also, at least to some extent, a legacy of his boldness and holistic engineering skills, even though he become known as a formidable public reformer. Sir Chadwick’s legacy reminds us of the importance of keeping engineering and public governance as two inseparable aspects of efficient strategies for long-term avoidance and reduction of consequences related to pandemic crises, such as COVID-19.

So, if you are about to wash your hands, next time give Sir Edwin Chadwick and his legacy some praise.

Sincerely yours,

Editor NewsFlash Europe, Tiago Ferradosa