This graph shows how improvements in sewage treatment improved public health in Christchurch. Before the installation of a sewerage system, the city council abolished cesspits and switched to nightsoil collection, which removed human waste from housing areas. This had an immediate impact on death rates from infectious diseases associated with human waste, such as typhoid. The completion of a sewerage system in the city in 1882 hastened the decline of these diseases.
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Source: Geoffrey Rice, 'Public health in Christchurch, 1875–1910: mortality and sanitation.' In A healthy country: essays on the social history of medicine in New Zealand, edited by Linda Bryder. Wellington: Bridget Williams, 1991, p. 96.
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