Sewage systems changed the world by helping stop the spread of diseases and
making everyday life and activities clean and more convenient. The spread of malaria,
typhoid, and yellow fever all were aided by insufficient sewage systems and the
development of increasingly modern plumbing have made a drastic change in the rate of
death and health throughout civilization. After the creation of sewage systems the world
was cleaner and life was more satisfactory. It is obvious how important plumbing was in
life even in Roman mythology where there was a goddess of the name Cloacina, the
goddess of sewage (Sewer History). In early centuries, however, sewage systems were
not planned, designed, or constructed by trained engineers because they were not thought
of as complex systems requiring the service of engineers, and therefore they did not
remove the three materials that are to be removed by sewers which are: subsoil water,
surplus rain water, and sewage. These are major factors and causes of disease
Around the time of 8000 BCE there were signs of plumbing in Scotland, the
evidence showed pipes running from indoor homes that carried waste or water to nearby
creeks. In 2000 BCE in the palace of Knossos in Crete there were the first toilets that
flushed, they placed pans on the roof of the palace that then collected rain water that ran
down the pipes and washed away the waste. The people of Knossos placed a wooden
cover over the seat to cover the system and keep the person using the toilet dry. Even a
small palace in Crete could make an extensive sewage system and understood the
importance of a productive and effective waste management system. Knossos was
probably the first European settlement with a well organized water system for incoming
clean water, regular waste water disposal that ended up in the gardens outside of the
settlement, and storm sewage canals for the times of heavy rain (Sewer History). In South
Asia in 2500 BCE there were well-planned sewage systems that made their first
appearances in history. The drains that were constructed were seven to ten feet wide and
two feet under the ground, the drains led the waste into cesspools, or pits, and had stairs
leading down to them for periodic cleanings. In the Indus civilization the restrooms and
latrines were located next to each other or in adjacent rooms inside each home, this
indicates that people understood the importance of cleanliness. The Egyptians only had
the privilege of having a place to go to the bathroom if they were wealthy(The Early
“Roots”). The “toilets” used sand to catch the waste and it was the job of servants to
empty them regularly. Cloaca Maxima, which translates to mean “Greatest Sewer”, may
have been constructed around 600 BCE (Samuel Merrill Gray, 5). It was constructed in
Ancient Rome in order to remove the waste of one of the most populous cities of that
time. The Ancient Romans overuse of lead is thought to have been a contributor to their
shortened life expectancies. The Romans were proud of their "rooms of easement" or
latrines. Public baths included such rooms adjacent to gardens. There, Roman officials
would sometimes continue discussions with visiting dignitaries while sitting on the
latrines. Elongated rectangular platforms with several adjacent seats were utilized, some
with privacy partitions, but most without. Water from the public baths, or brush water
from the aqueduct system, flowed continuously in troughs beneath the latrine seats; the
sewage was delivered to the sewers beneath the city, and eventually to the Tiber River
(The Early “Roots”). The Greeks had a system of aqueducts much like the Romans but
unlike the Romans, the Greeks understood that waste could be used as fertilizers for their
crops. In Greek civilization wastes were taken to a basin from which brick lined conduits
took the waste to fields as fertilizer for the Greek fruit orchards and field crops.
If sewage systems are not well thought out or constructed properly then the
sewage can play a great role in the creation or spread of diseases. The first sewer that was
engineered in Paris in the 1200’s was an open trough in the middle of the road, that
system was not very effective and therefore contributed to the spread of the Black Death.
Even without an understanding for germs, many ancient civilizations had a good
understanding for the need of careful sewage disposal, this knowledge however was lost
or ignored during the Middle Ages. From around the time of 500 to 1450 CE in the
Middle Ages, sanitary precautions were disregarded, flush toilets and sewage systems
disappeared and people started relieving themselves outside or used chamber pots. There
were open sewers in the street, where people threw there garbage as well, and these
sewers were emptied into the nearest river. With such an unsanitary living environment
where many fleas and rats could live peacefully this problem was a major contributor to
the spread of the Black Death.
Richer people in the 1500’s started using chamber pots that they called close
stools. The well-off made them to look like a box and the lid opened up to show a seat
decorated in velvet and lace to show wealth and under the seat was a pot to catch waste.
Sewage systems that were not planned thoroughly and carefully usually drained to water
sources and also helped the spread of diseases due to unsafe drinking water. In the 1600’s
after people started living in cities the civilians began to urinate and empty their chamber
pots in the streets, this waste ran into rivers and wells and contaminated the water. People
were very uncivilized and careless about what was done with the waste and people
gradually became accustomed to the stench. In Vienna the Danube River was
contaminated due to garbage landing in the streets and waste run off to the River. Some
40,000 Italians died in the 16th century due to an outbreak of malaria that was caused by
unsanitary water systems in Rome (Plagues and Epidemics). The great fire of London in
1666 brought some attention back to sanitation and the construction of drains for
removing the surplus amount of water from the cities (Samuel Merrill Gray, 6). The
build up of human wastes can lead people to extreme measures such as in Berlin where
the government made a law stating that every peasant that came to sell wares was
required to carry a bag of garbage out with them when they left. When looking for a place
to build castles engineers generally looked to build at least a part of the castle over water,
waste from the castle would then be discharged to the surrounding moat or into a large
cesspool that was constructed beneath the castle, in some parts of the world this has not
changed.
In Paris engineers built landfills for human wastes and underground sewers began
to be built, people were so accustomed to the smell and proud of the sewers they had
made that the people of Paris started to give weekend tours for the citizens (Sewer
History). In the summer of 1858 in London there was an incident called the “Great Stink”
the smell was so terrible that even members of the government left town to avoid it. The
Stink was caused by house waste that was being carried to the Thames River by the
sewage systems for seven years and building up to then be potentially pumped back to
households for drinking, bathing, and cooking. There were also 200,000 cesspits in
London but due to laziness and the fact that it cost a shilling to clean a cesspit every time,
a price that citizens could not afford, the cesspits were not cleaned for years adding to the
stench. It took years to clean the sewers, when it was finally finished the stink went away
and people who lived in the cities lived longer and had fewer diseases. Even after the
sewers were repaired however, waste continued to be emptied into the Thames (Elizabeth
Raum,13). To aid in the problem of drinking water being contaminated by sewage Baron
Haussmann engineered a sewage system that contained separate passages for drinking
water and sewage using iron pipes and digging techniques that were made possible by the
Industrial Revolution, by 1878 this system was 360 miles long.
Human waste kills animals in the water and clogs rivers, to avoid this some cities
in 1890 started to use filters and chemicals to treat the waste before putting it into rivers
and lakes. In the 18th and 19th centuries the United States was struck repeatedly by
Yellow Fever and caused 100,000 to 150,000 deaths because of insufficient sewage
systems (Plagues and Epidemics). Malaria hit India hard in 1852 and wiped out entire
villages, it is affecting Africa even now and kills millions of people every year because of
unsanitary living conditions.
During World War Two Vienna’s sewer systems suffered badly from bombings
and it was not until the 1950’s that it was entirely repaired. Vienna today has one of the
most modern sewage systems.
When people started migrating to the New World the immigrants tried to do
things better then how it was done back in Europe, it was slow but large cities developed
systems to carry wastes to nearby water sources. Boston was the first site of the
“interceptor” system, a sewage system that contains large sewer lines that combine to
control the flow of sewage to the treatment plant, in a storm the system is made to allow
some sewage to flow to a stream, keeping it from overflowing onto the streets.
In 1590 Sir John Harington designed a flush toilet, there was a tank near the
ceiling that released water when the toilet handle was pulled, few people were willing to
try it and most people mocked his invention. J.F. Blondel created a better flush toilet in
1738. This toilet included a flap, or valve, to keep odors out of the house. People started
using Blondel’s toilets in homes and in 1870, S. Hellyer invented a flush toilet similar to
the one people use today. In 1916 two American scientists first treated waste with
bacteria before returning it to rivers or lakes and it is a system that many cities continue
to use today to treat their water (Elizabeth Raum). There is a Cholera outbreak in Haiti
presently that is being spread and worsened by insufficient living environments and
sanitation that contaminates water. An outbreak of Typhoid Fever, a disease caused
mainly by water that was contaminated by feces, in the Democratic Republic of Congo in
2005 that killed 214 people out of 42,000 cases. In India in 2007 waste was a major issue
effecting the peoples, 80 percent of untreated waste in India ends up in the rivers,
specifically the Delhi. Samples taken from the Ganges River near Varanasi show that
levels of fecal coli form, a dangerous bacterium that comes from untreated sewage, were
some 3,000 percent higher than what is considered safe for bathing (Choking on Pollution
in India). According to the Center for Science and Environment around 80 percent of the
waste that pollutes the rivers is raw sewage, it totals to over 3 billion liters of waste per
day and is greatly above the limit that the rivers are able to take in. As populations began
to notice that the spread of diseases was linked to waste disposal methods, more
innovative ideas were created.
It is apparent that throughout history people gradually began to realize how
important sewage systems were to society. There have been many different developments
in every civilization on sewage systems because people noticed how changing the way
that waste is disposed of can change the quality of living within the community. People
began to see that life is easier when it is sanitary and you are healthier when there is no
sewage in the streets or polluting the water. The growth of sewage systems throughout
history is extravagant and has changed from century to century, sometimes it changed for
the worst due to peoples laziness and misunderstanding of what is sanitary and what
could be life threatening situations but every mistake was learned from and changed until
an effective system was produced. It became evident that in order to preserve supplies of
water to drink, protect fish and other water life, or to minimize public odors and debris
they had to treat sewage to a degree before they disposed of it. As long as the importance
of sanitation that is well thought out and effective stays clear to people from every
civilization then this world will continue to become cleaner, healthier, and a more
enjoyable place to live.
Major causes of epidemics and disease outbreaks throughout the world are or
have been caused by unsanitary sewage systems that contaminate water and aid in the
spread of the disease. Even today sewage systems around the world are not all in the
conditions that is up to par. There is still a lot of room for improvement in modern
plumbing and treatment of waste especially in places such as India and Africa where the
living conditions are unsanitary and have an abundance of pollution and these people
need at least a way to deal with the waste that works. The importance of sewage systems
is not fully realized until people start seeing the effects of waste build-up or how it can
affect their everyday lives, in societies that do not have sufficient systems the death rate
is much higher and life is less pleasurable. Quality of life is much worse because of lack
of cleanliness, smell, and inconvenience in life from day to day, such as having to go out
of your way to go to the bathroom instead of conveniently going to the nearest restroom.
A survey was conducted by the British Medical Journal in 2007 and asked a group of
experts and doctors what they consider to be the greatest medical advance since 1840.
The answer that beat out any antibiotics or surgical methods was sanitation (Diseases and
Sanitation). Sewage systems have changed the world and will continue on doing so until
everyone’s lives are sanitary in every part of the world.