By the late 1880s Melbourne's population had grown immensely to nearly 1/2 million, and the city's waste disposal habits made the rivers, creeks and bays unhygienic and unsightly, and epidemics of typhoid became frequent (one in four children did not survive past their second year). This led to a Royal Commission into Melbourne's public health in 1888, which recommended a sewerage system, and supported the establishment of a Board of Works to build it. James Mansergh, an eminent British sanitary engineer, was brought out by the Victorian Government in 1889 to recommend the most appropriate plan; he advocated a water-borne sewerage system, something local engineers had long asked for.