WaterAid gets Snowed in

Some of the descendants of John Snow enjoy a glass of crystal clear water with Health Secretary Alan Johnson.

Credit: WaterAid

17 June 2008

WaterAid marked the 150th anniversary of the death of Dr John Snow, the pioneering scientist who discovered that water is the carrier of cholera, in unique fashion.

WaterAid and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) invited the Rt Hon Alan Johnson, UK Secretary of State for Health, to the John Snow pub in Soho, to unveil a special RSC Chemical Landmark blue plaque. The plaques mark locations at which remarkable scientific achievements have been undertaken.

Revolutionary anaesthetist John Snow identified the pattern of the cholera epidemic in London, subsequently disabling an infectious water pump in Soho which he discovered to have harboured the disease. The John Snow pub in Broadwick Street is located close to the once deadly pump.

Amongst the line of Snows raising their glasses of crystal clear water were descendants of the great man himself - two year old Robert Snow and seven year olds Lola and Shirley Snow, to whom Dr Snow was their great, great, great, great, great, great-uncle!

Looking around the healthy streets of Soho, it is hard to believe that cholera continues to kill people on a daily basis. Dr Stanwell-Smith, from the John Snow Society and a John Snow expert, expressed that Dr Snow would have been shocked and disturbed to know that, despite his life saving discovery, we still witness needless deaths around the developing world.

More than a billion people have no safe water to drink and as a result diarrhoeal diseases like cholera still claim the lives of around 1.8 million people a year.

WaterAid's chair, Jeremy Pelczer, also spoke at the event:

"WaterAid is keen to celebrate the life of Doctor Snow and his incredible foresight and courage in challenging the perceived thinking on cholera and for advocating clean water and better sanitation in London and the UK.

"The difference that Snow's discovery made to public health in the UK was immense; it's about time the rest of the world started to benefit from Snow's work, given that 5,000 children die every day in developing countries from water-related diseases like cholera."