CHAPTER 3 the IMPERIAL SCOURGES Cholera, Malaria
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CHAPTER 3 THE IMPERIAL SCOURGES Cholera, Malaria, Plague and Sanitary Housing Water is intimately connected with diseases. Inadequacy and impure supplies can lead to diseases like cholera, while excess and stagnant water can lead to others like malaria. Further, it is also the principle weapon against insanitation. The insanitation and diseases of Bombay, apart from being a social concern, also threatened the imperial image and the commercial prospects of the city. This subject, therefore, aroused much discussion and debates from time to time. While the city was host to several diseases, only Cholera, Malaria and Plague have been taken for study as these, apart from their impact on the city's image, also help to understand 'social attitudes" and the "living conditions" of the common natives, especially in the context of the manner in which they received their water supply. Measures adopted to combat the above mentioned diseases, included the institution of the hydraulic supply system, which assured the sanitary redemption of the city through its apparently copius and pure water supply, and a scientific system of drainage. This sanitary apparatus, it has often been contended, effectively controlled morbidity in the city. However, the other side of the coin is largely ignored; i.e. the efficiency and management of the new water technology in fighting these diseases. Further, while Cholera was greatly impacted by the distribution and mode of delivery of water, the latter, along with Malaria and Plague, also influenced the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the new as well as the traditional water management systems of the city; an area which has been mostly overlooked. This chapter therefore examines the complex interaction between these diseases and the new water supply technology, along with the impact of this relationship on the city and its water management. David Arnold. Cholera and Colonialism in British India. Past and Present. No. 113 (Nov. 1986). pi 18. Hereafter. Arnold Cholera. 131 WATER SUPPLY AND CHOLERA IN BOMBAY British attempts to deal with Cholera, in the city, have been studied by scholars like David Arnold, Ira Klein and Mridula Ramanna. All of them agree that Cholera mortality declined at the beginning of the 20"^ century. Arnold has attributed this to the drop in famines and Ramanna, to the new water supply system. The following discussion therefore tries to understand the role of the new water supply system in the mitigation of this disease. The occurrence of Cholera, at this time, was ascribed to the defective air, water, overcrowding and improper food or clothing. In fact bad conservancy and all defects of sanitation were related to the causation of this disease. No less importance was attached to local conditions such as the existence of defective physical and social environs in the form of swamps and the habits of the natives. Leith"s report "Deaths in Bombay" for example, indicted the low and humid locales of the city and demanded, "A system of drainage which will embrace even the lowest levels of the island", reclamation of marshes, improvement of the sewerage and widening of the streets, as measures of first importance in the control of diseases.^ Miasmas, or impure noxious air, arising out of insanitation were held to be equally responsible for diseases. The International Congress at Constantinople, in 1866, had reached the conclusion that the human body was the chief medium of reproduction and dissemination of the poison. It was also a belief, at this time, that warm and damp atmospheric conditions were favourable for the spread of the disease. Similarly, credence was also given to the idea that decomposition around the wells, tanks, drains and sewers aided in the reproduction and dissemination of the poison. Cholera epidemics, it was understood, were found particularly intense in areas which were devoid of trees and when Cholera camps were moved into 'topes of trees' it was found that there was a marked reduction in the disease. At the same time the dry earth system, for the disposal of night soil, and evacuation or removal, from conditions of overcrowding, and the most careful supervision of water, to prevent its contamination by the Cholera poison, were perceived as remedies.' - BTJC. op. cit. 17"^ October 1859, pi 964 John Murray. Report on the Treatment of Epidemic Cholera, From Information collected by the Governments of Bengal. Madras. Bombay, N. West Provinces. 132 Claims vs. Reality With the onset of Vihar water, in 1860. an exultant Government claimed, that Bombay had embarked on modern times. The new technology, they assumed, had made the city of Bombay highly advanced as far as water supply was concerned and that people were certainly enjoying an inestimable blessing. Russel Aitkin further asserted that both sanitary and monetary benefits had accrued from the new supply system. He strongly believed that "the health of the community has been much benefitted by the introduction of the Vihar water". Bombay, the Government chorused, had become free of cholera, except in its densely packed parts, such as Chowpatty where only well water was available. Fever, another cause of mortality, had disappeared and guinea worm was on the verge of disappearing. Elephantiasis had become rare. Thus, without the Vihar water "the present population could not be maintained on the island, nor could the city as at present constituted exist."^ Seven years later, Crawford declared that cholera had been stamped out of the city.' The Sanitary Blue Book for 1869-70 even maintained that, the death rates per 1000 in India, as a result of such sanitary improvements were the lowest in Bombay at 19.2 while those in London were 23.3. It was contended, that in four years (1864-8), the death rate in Bombay had fallen from 31.3 to 19.2. The Blue Book further stated that "in three years the masses have begun to learn that such scourges as Cholera, fever and the like can be prevented by the ordinary processes of sanitation."^ An elated Nightingale, therefore, congratulated Bartle Frere. the Governor of Bombay, for being instrumental in making Bombay city on par with London, the healthiest city in Europe. According to Nightingale, the death rate in Bombay was lower than Punjab. Oudh and Central India. Office of Superintendant Press. Calcutta. 1869. pp 3-6 ^ PWD General 1868-1889. Vol. 423. Letter no. 1873 of 1868 from Russel Aitkin. Executive Engineer, to Arthur Crawford, Municipal Commissioner for the city of Bombay, 15"'July 1868, pp 7-8 ' Mariam Dossal. EPW. September 3. 2005, A Master Plan For The City Looking At The Past, p 3899. Hereafter, Dossal EPW. Sir Edward Cook. The Life Of Florence Nightingale In Two Volumes. Vol. 11 Macmillan And Co.. Limited. London 1913. p 174 133 that in London. "If we do not take care, Bombay will outstrip us in the sanitary race. People will be ordered for the benefit of their heath to Bombay,"• • 7 she stated. These claims, however, need to be reviewed and understood in the background of the supply and distribution system adopted for the masses in the city. Though blessed with a modern water supply system, the poorer class of people, as seen in the previous chapter, were to be provided with water, only via public sources like fountains, dipping wells and standpipes. G.7: Wells Supplied And Not Supplied By Vihar Water in 1869. BDWS, p 428 Even here there was • supplied with lack of consensus x^ Vihar water among the e 4000 1 • Not supplied 2000 administrators and the 1 with Vihar water medical fraternity. s 0 N S Total Crawford favoured Wards ^o" fountains while Dr. Blaney did not.^ Standpipes sent out from England, as per the earlier plan, and fixed at different stations in the street, apart from being defective, proved to be insufficient for public supply of water. Therefore, the Municipality was driven by the convenient logic that dipping wells, from which a number of persons at a time could till their vessels for domestic use, were much better suited to the local habits and requirements of the people. As a result, these along with private wells, continued to be the mainstay of supply for a long time. However, most dipping wells were faced with a frequent problem of contamination due to percolation of sewage water, since they had been constructed in a faulty manner with their bottoms fixed below the surface of the surrounding grounds. This kind of contaminated water increased the spread of xymotic diseases, a danger that was not realized when the wells were built. Critical of this mode of supply, both Philip Mason. The Men Who Ruled India. Rupa and Co. Delhi. Third Impression. 1997.pl9l ^ BDWS 1869. op. cit.. pp 62-63 134 Leith and Hewlitt. Health Officer to the Municipality, maintained that the use of dipping wells made this water a means of disseminating—not health, but disease. Leith especially mooted for their discontinuation. On account of this faulty supply cholera was rampant in the city. Cholera affected Girgaum and Chaopatee of the Native Town more often. Here, there were only 774 connections of Vihar water and the majority of the people drank water from dipping wells, dug out of the porous calcareous sand which formed the locality. This district had extensive Oarts. covered with coconut trees, among which poorer classes lived in cadjan huts, which were densely packed and poorly drained. Most of the dirty water therefore, found its way into the nearest wells. Girgaum and Chaopatee had earned the dubious distinction of being the "Cholera gardens" of the city. G.8: Cholera Deaths In Bombay City 1860-1865. Though condemned as insanitary, L Michael, p 171 dipping wells and private wells 6000 1 j 1 continued to supply water to the natives.