Water Pollution and its Illnesses in the First Pahlavi Period (With an Emphasis on Medical Treatise "Water and Diseases Published by it")

Water and its pollution, was one of the major issues that the Pahlavi government faced with it. Reports and documents indicate that this has been one of the main causes of contagious illnesses in Iran since the Qajar era. During the first Pahlavi period, water so to be a direct and indirect factor to the spread of illnesses such as malaria, typhoid fever, trachoma, gonorrhea, tuberculosis and so on. As a result, proceedings were taken to resolve the problem and doctors who specialize in this field wrote treatises and articles to inform the general public. In this paper, we study and analyze the issue of water pollution and its illnesses and the actions of the Pahlavi government to tackle it with by a descriptive-analytical approach, relying on first-hand library resources and new research as well as Pahlavi period newspapers and then we will review and study the Dr.Saeed Khan Kordestani's medical treatise, with title "Water and illnesses spread by it" that an important treatise on water use education and its associated illnesses. Research findings show that the Pahlavi government for confronting with illnesses the water and its pollutions, done a lot of actions, including: dredging aqueducts, construction of new aqueducts and making the stream for use of the water, offer plumbing water, emphasizing on need to transfer the stable and gharry houses to outside the cities, the need for sand in the streets and the transfer of rubbish and dirt to outside the cities and educational activities such as raising public awareness of illnesses prevention and recognition by publishing newspapers, thesis and images and holding conferences and doctors, such as Dr.Saeed Khan Kordestani, were aware of the issue, writing articles and thesiss on water and pollution and provided solutions for using clean water and tackling polluted water. The result of this article shows that during the first Pahlavi period, many practical and educational activities were taken to deal with waterborne illnesses and some physicians, such as Saeed Khan Kordestani, also wrote separately, but water and its illnesses so to cause death.