Its historical fact...
If you check any Europe maps you can see that cities often were made close to river or other water suply in middle ages...
If i had to gues i would say they were thirsty and lazy ... just as they say: Repeating is way to mastery ... lazyness is way to technological advance.
Of course more corect way to say that would be: "Fresh water! IF there is settlement nearby it will be close to river."
But that would be a formality on same level as discuion about that if two people can "form a line"
About fishermans ...
They actualy imply exactly the oposite ... you never fish close to the village for various reasons ...
Just to list few:
Noise scares fish away ...
You usualy want to fish in deep water rather than shallow ...
And last but not least lets be honest with each other for a second ... where do you think that all and every trash ended?
