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| - The clear running mountain stream is an iconic image of purity. Think of every advertisement for bottled water you've ever seen. So naturally when our heroes are hiking through the wilderness and they come across a babbling brook, it's time to dive right in and drink their fill without a second's thought right after filling the canteens. Those of you who are regular campers or have attended any form of survival training know where this is going. In Fictionland, water that's unsafe to drink will look unsafe to drink. It will be brackish. It will smell bad. There may be dead animals around it or in it. Maybe a cigarette butt or used condom if it's in a populated area. So if that mountain stream is crystal clear and Bambi and his pals are all drinking happily from it, then no problem. Except, of course, for the myriad waterborne parasites and diseases that sicken and kill thousands in the real world. Animals have resistances that humans long removed from the wild don't (and they get sick fairly often anyhow). There's a reason water purification kits are standard issue for hikers, campers and survival kits worldwide. Not to mention the billions of dollars cities pour into building and maintaining municipal water facilities and sewage treatment plants. Also, in some deserts, any water that is beautifully clear and fresh looking (i.e., nothing lives there) may be caused by natural arsenic deposits that turn up in some rocky areas. Water that looks green and mossy and full of gunk will give you dysentery at worst, but drinking the perfectly clear death water will end your hike for good. In other deserts, water that is perfectly clear with nothing in it and isn't running may well be irradiated. Different means, same ends. It might (note the emphasis) have some basis in the reality, as back in the days the immune systems of the people were (due to constant attack of the waterborne pathogens) much hardier and better trained than now. Not that it helped much, mind you -- cholera, typhoid and dysentery were killing many more people than wars -- but weaker germs like E. coli and Salmonella pestis would've resulted in the mild case of runs at worst. But then again, diarrhea at the times was pretty much the normal condition for most people... This trope is often found in historical fiction, where characters will be shown drinking and bathing in fresh water without a worry or concern. This is especially true of the Purity Sue, who will imply her "specialness" by the amount of time she spends bathing. Time travelers might also take the opportunity to sneer at the filthy beasts they meet who are simply too stupid to keep themselves clean and too debauched to drink cool, clear water instead of alcohol. All nonsense, of course: people in the old days didn't know that the diseases associated with drinking or bathing in plain water (cholera, dysentery, typhoid, polio, etc.) were caused by waterborne pathogens, but they did know that both activities were risky, and boiling that much water was simply too damn expensive for many. Some writers take the trope to eleven and give their Purity Sue characters hot and cold running water and showers. In Norman castles. We'd like to claim that this is more common in fan fiction, but sadly it's a common mistake in professionally published fiction. It's best to assume that untreated water is unsafe to drink, particularly if it's passed a road, a village, or a forest. There are streams that have been filtered by mineral layers (more in some countries than in others), but generally they shouldn't be trusted without confirmation, preferably from a local who has drunk from it for many years. Even the purest-seeming mountain stream may be tainted with parasites like Giardia lamblia, also known in Western Canada as "beaver fever". No, not even the First World is immune. Also see I Ate What? Examples of Cool, Clear Water include:
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