Water: Hygienistic discourse and town council practice (Mallorca, 1855-1936)

The aim of this article is to analyze the relationship between the hygienistic discourse on water cycle and the sanitary interventions carried out by the town councils of Mallorca from 1855 to 1936. The purpose of the discourse was to make the population and the municipal authorities aware of the importance of improving the water supply. The used sources have been municipal minutes, press and scientific articles from that period. Our main conclusion is the lack of timing between the hygienistic proposals and the undertaken interventions. Nevertheless these late interventions were useful to improve the quantity and the quality of the water that the citizens were supplied. The water interventions were attempted at the same time than other sanitary actions, such as isolation measures (quarantines) or town walls demolition, reforms done by the municipal or provincial authorities having a scientific consensus too.