Soru

Passage:

In mid-nineteenth-century British industrial cities, municipal water supply networks were initially constructed by private utility companies operating under parliamentary charters. Proponents argued that private enterprise offered the capital efficiency needed to expand infrastructure rapidly. However, because private charters guaranteed monopoly rights within designated districts without capping subscriber tariffs, companies consistently prioritized high-density, affluent commercial corridors while neglecting lower-income residential perimeters. Consequently, water contamination and cholera outbreaks remained concentrated in marginalized districts throughout the 1840s.

To address these public health crises, municipal reform coalitions successfully lobbied for the Public Health Act of 1848, which authorized local boards of health to purchase private waterworks through compulsory municipalization. Surprisingly, despite acquiring the private networks, municipal boards did not immediately extend infrastructure to peripheral neighborhoods. Instead, faced with substantial debt obligations incurred from compensating former charter holders at premium valuations, these municipal boards funneled nearly all municipal revenues into servicing interest payments and maintaining existing trunk lines. Thus, counter to the expectations of reform coalitions who assumed municipalization would democratize access, the immediate financial burden of buyout compensation effectively constrained the public sector's ability to achieve broader spatial distribution of clean water until late-stage debt restructuring occurred decades later.

Based on the passage, which of the following statements regarding water infrastructure in mid-nineteenth-century British industrial cities is most strongly supported?