The "Big Stink" was a time in the summer of 1858 when the smell of untreated sewage almost overwhelmed the people of central London.  Until then, London people had relied for their water on shallow wells. Water was also carried from the Thames and seeped from the Thames into the wells. The Thames contaminated with outflows from toilets, abattoirs and industrial waste was a severe health hazard. Cholera was rife. 

The Metropolitan Board of Water accepted a scheme from Joseph Bazalgette and within 6 years the problem was cured. The rate of cholera in London, previously the highest in the world, went down to zero. Remarkably, Bazalgette took the long term view. His words were that since this was only going to be done once, it should be done well. And he proposed a doubling of the size of the sewage channels.  

One hundred years later, without this extra capacity, London would have been flooded.  Bazalgette was quite a visionary. He invested more in the poorer quarters of London than in the richer residential areas; and this in the time of Dickens. 

Two generations previously Joseph Bazalgette’s grandfather had emigrated to America from a lonely hamlet on the Causse de Sauveterre above Ispagnac in the Gorges du Tarn in Central France. 

He fought the British with the Marquis de Lafayette, before emigrating to England and becoming the Prince Regent's tailor.  The English are very forgiving ;-) and were well paid back. Son John Bazalgette became a colonel in the British army.

More generations downstream and a descendent of the family is the creator of the Big Brother reality TV show. Sometimes you need to take the long term view !