Scotch College

Our bodies washed with pure water

Back in 1956 the "pan man” called each week at our house. His horse-drawn cart ambled down the street, laden with safely sealed pans of human excrement. He came round the side of our house with a sealed empty on his sack-covered shoulder. At the “dunny”, he swapped the lid from the empty to the used pan and carried it back to the horse and cart in the street. It was always good to have an empty pan, fresh with antiseptic.

Eventually, we heard the MMBW was “bringing the sewage”. They worked their way up Widford Street from Glenroy. The trenches were about two metres deep, and blasting was needed most days. As the reticulation of pipes progressed, the locked huts housing the explosives were moved about. During blasting, heavy hemp matting was placed over the explosive charges to prevent rocks from flying in all directions. We would often hear the muted THUMP of the explosives.

Back in those days, John Snow and Joseph Bazalgette were unknown to me. But when cholera killed thousands in the London of Charles Dickens, these men were pioneers in epidemiology and sanitation. Snow’s painstaking interviews with people living in Soho near the Broad Street water pump identified contaminated water as the agent of infection, at a time when the popular “miasma theory” suggested it was an airborne disease. Snow’s 1849 work is a classic case study in epidemiology.

Bazalgette was the engineer who designed and built the London sewers. This colossal pioneering enterprise, featured in The Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, was made even more complex, because the London Underground was being built simultaneously. The elegant Victoria Embankment was his design. His sewers provided drainage for more than 31 billion gallons of sewage each year. This protected the drinking water from contamination and dramatically improved public health.

Almost 150 years later, cholera still stalks the poor of the world’s overcrowded cities, and poor sanitation is the number one killer of children. UNICEF reported on World Water Day in March this year that more than 5,000 children die every day from diarrhoeal diseases caused by water supply and sanitation no better than London’s in the days of Charles Dickens. This is appalling and tragic.

Since we were kids we have known only clean water and good waste disposal. We have probably also known about forgiveness and grace since our earliest days. Christians think of God as interested in waste disposal. Christ came to remove pollution; it’s as if we had “our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22). If we valued more highly the washing of forgiveness and the experience of grace, we would live in a world more able to deliver the primary health care needs of its children. It’s time we did.

Graham Bradbeer
Chaplain

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Request for personal anecdotes

The chaplaincy team and Christian Education Department would like to begin a collection of personal anecdotes related to the faith experience of previous students of the college. Stories from school days or later in life would be welcome. It is hoped that such stories may be referred to in worship services and Christian education classes to provide inspiration and a point of contact with the experience of current students.

If you have one or more anecdotes that illustrate the positive influence of the Christian faith in your life and you are willing for these stories to be shared with current students (names can be withheld if desired), we would like to hear from you. Age is no barrier! Stories from any time period are welcome. Anecdotes can be sent by email to Grant Watson (Head of Christian Education):

grant.watson@scotch.vic.edu.au

Or by mail to Grant Watson at the school (1 Morrison St., Hawthorn. 3122) Grant can be phoned on 9810 4259 if you have any queries regarding this request.