Life Without Plumbing

Most of the readers of this post will never have experienced even a part of their life without plumbing.  That's right, plumbing has been around for quite some time in various forms.  In our daily lives it has become such a mainstay that rarely in he developed countries of the world do we even give plumbing a thought.  Plumbing is mostly out of site.  So it's out of mind, too.  That is until something goes haywire.

The two most obvious plumbing necessities are running water and the toilet.  Imagine what your life would be like if you had to head to your nearest river, pond, or stream for all your water.  Oh, you might say, "I'll just go and pump some at the well."  Nope.  The pump and pipe that bring the water to the surface, even if manually done, is plumbing.  It's time to take a hike to get your water for drinking and cooking.

Being that there's no plumbing in our imaginary musings here, you find that you need to relieve yourself.  Great.  Head to the outhouse.  Without plumbing there are no pipes, no water, no septic tanks.

Convenience of Plumbing

Clearly, plumbing has made the basic essentials of life much simpler to accomplish.  We go to the fridge and place the glass in the door, press a button, and plumbing delivers ice cold water (with or without ice in some cases) directly into the glass right inside the kitchen in your house --- not down by the river.

Need to go potty?  Head down the hall to a private room, the bathroom.  Plumbing connects to water and sewer or septic system making the toilet a possibility.

Laundry can be done on your own machines in your house rather than on a washboard at a nearby watering hole thanks to plumbing.

Bathing or showering to get clean is all at your fingertips even regulating the temperature thanks to plumbing.

Part of what got me thinking about plumbing and how wonderfully awesome it is and has made our lives was a picture I saw this week.  It was of 6 boys from India loaded on one bicycle in their swimsuits with their hair wet.  The caption said that they had been to a nearby river for their bath.  Pretty wild stuff!

Safety Impact of Plumbing

Most of us don't give a thought to the impact that modern plumbing plays on our health and safety.  Head to the third world undeveloped regions where a ditch collects raw human waste and garbage that is out in the open in a densely populated community.  We've seen the pictures.  Cholera and all sorts of other diseases are a normal part of living for these people.

Now look around in a completely different environment in a developed major metropolitan area.  Go inside a building and check out the sprinklers in the ceiling and walls.  You're likely to find them in your hotel room, too.  Plumbing brings this fire safety system into reality.

Bottom line, plumbing is more than mere convenience.  It has saved us countless hours of time and contributed to improved health and safety.

Plumbing Disasters

If you're interested in delving deeper into this topic, Wikipedia has a pretty good article with plenty of extra resource links that you can review when you click on plumbing.