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Authors

Garrett Mast

Keywords

Aberdeen, water question, river dee, river Avon, town council

Abstract

On September 16th, 1909, the Aberdeen Daily Journal ran a single article that encompassed one and a half pages of the ten- page printing. This article did not discuss any national or international news, but rather a town council meeting for the city of Aberdeen in northern Scotland. This meeting was anything but standard procedure, lasting six and a half hours, a record for the council with at least 27 of the 34 councillors participating in the debate. The debate discussed the rather mundane question of from which river the council should seek approval for pumping new drinking water.1 “The Water Question,” as the issue was often referred to, mainly pitted the River Avon, a less populated river high in the Aberdeenshire mountains, against the River Dee, the primary river that runs through Aberdeen and the original drinking water source, as well as the occasional third option.

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