I grew up with a well and septic tank, and I actually remember our next-door neighbors installing running water for the first time! They had an outhouse and a hand pump until the mid-1970s. I'm 57, and those folks were definite outliers, but they did exist.

With the size of the population now, water treatment is imperative unless you do live in a rural area, which I think you will agree with.

And nobody should be burning trash, but it was pretty common when I was a kid in a small town.