This article is another one designed to get people thinking about the hidden parts of our cities. The water and waste systems are easy to forget and are often willfully ignored.
People living in modern cities take sanitation for granted. Many people don’t realize that cities appeared after we developed sewers and efficient garbage removal. Quite literally, sewers are the backbone of civilization. It is misleading sometimes because many cities have truly ancient origins, however they were barely more than villages before sanitation. The problem with have large numbers of people in a small area like a city is that it gets filthy, and it gets filthy fast. The problem with living in filthy places is disease. Water borne, airborne and vermin borne diseases boom when there are lots of people in dirty places. The reason settlements didn’t grow beyond villages is disease would keep populations small.
Before sewers, sewage flowed freely in the streets. It eventually flows into the nearest surface water and leaches into the groundwater completely contaminating all water supplies.
Before Sewers Streets Had Rivers Of Sewage
Cities will quickly regress into a similar state once the efficient removal of waste is interrupted. I have written about what a breakdown of the sewers system will look like. In a long term scenario, people will either move or they will throw their waste into the street.
Sewage Overflow in San Francisco
This seems so foreign to us, but that is exactly what happens when waste services stop. Continue reading
