The smell of the Great Stink (see previous article), and fears of its possible effects on the population, elicited action from the national and local administrators who had been weighing up possible solutions. The authorities would eventually accept a proposal from the civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette, chief engineer of London’s Metropolitan Board of Works, to move the effluent eastwards along a series of interconnecting sewers that sloped towards outfalls beyond the metropolitan area. It was not, however, a quick fix, taking many years to complete.