Also, humans survived for thousands of years prior to having clean water, but not like today. Infant mortality rates were much higher, life spans were much shorter. Also, while maybe indirectly related to clean water, an infected tooth could kill. Populations did not grow as quickly.
There is a lot of lost knowledge today of how to live in a dirty world just fine.
So many these days take everything for granted and often do things that still make me cringe.
There are a lot of reasons why people did things the way they did, including of course lots of beer drinking and mostly eating cooked foods only.
Reminds me of when I took some folks who lived in Japan for many years to go eat at the local Cantonese canteen in an industrial area.
Waiter comes out first and puts a large glass bowl in the center of our table then fills it with boiling water???
I'm like... do what the locals are doing, toss all your plates, cups, chopsticks and spoons into the bowl and rinse them... have you seen the alley where the dishes are washed?....
All the food comes out to the table incredibly hot, along with the plates they are served on being too hot to touch without a cloth.
To drink you get boiling tea, just pour it, wait for it to cool in one glass while drinking from the other glass that already cooled.
You want fresh vegetables, do it yourself at home where you can wash, soak and scrub the vegetables first. The most popular fertilizer around here is human waste, so no, everything you eat out is cooked.
Other things like religiously teaching your kids not to cut towards themselves and be very careful not to get cut.
Be very careful not to do crazy stuff that might leave you with a broken bone.
Washing your hands constantly
Not wearing outdoor shoes inside the house and changing into house clothes when you come back from the markets.
I fully agree that living in a nice clean environment where you don't have to worry about all that stuff is WAY better, BUT it's basic survival knowledge that people don't understand but can keep you healthy and alive during a crisis.
How many young folks that want to "eat healthy" that you know, are in the regular habit of washing each vegetable and each leaf of the ingredients they put into their salad, or at least rinsing it off under running water really quick. How many give their fruit a quick wash and wipe before eating if it can't be peeled?
How many crack the eggs into the frying pan then throw the shells away and go wash their hands before touching anything else?
Lots of what used to be common knowledge of how to stay safe is completely lost in the younger generation.