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systems for domestic wastes. They usually discharged the sewage into neighbouring
waterways, often polluting the water supply of downstream cities.
The air and the land also became dumps for waste disposal. In the late nineteenth
century, coal became the
preferred fuel for industrial, transportation, and domestic
use. But while providing an inexpensive and plentiful energy supply,
coal was also very
dirty. The cities that used it suffered from air contamination and reduced sunlight,
while the cleaning tasks of householders were greatly increased.
E
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reformers began
demanding
urban environmental cleanups and public health improvements. Women's groups
often took the lead in agitating for clean air and clean water,
showing a greater
concern than men in regard to quality of life and health-related issues. The
replacement of the horse, first by electric trolleys and then by the car,
brought about
substantial improvements in street and air sanitation. The movements demanding
clean air, however, and reduction of waterway pollution were largely unsuccessful. On
balance, urban sanitary conditions were probably somewhat better in the 1920s than
in the late nineteenth century, but the cost of improvement
often was the exploitation
of urban hinterlands for water supplies, increased downstream water pollution, and
growing automobile congestion and pollution.
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