Sustainable Sanitation, Part 1

The history of the disposal of human excreta is as old as human civilization. As a field of study, its history is short. In 1854, Dr. John Snow removed the handle from the water pump at the corner of Cambridge and Broad streets in London, thereby containing a cholera epidemic in the neighborhood, but doing little to stem the introduction of the bacteria into the Thames River. Over one hundred years later, sanitation practitioners continue to pay close attention to pump handles and less to pollution prevention.

From privies to sewers and advanced wastewater treatment, we have exchanged one kind of public health and environmental problem for another. Some disease cycles have closed while others have opened. Industrial discharges into public sewers, water pollution from nutrient loading and chemical contamination, and freshwater scarcity are global problems all associated with "advances" in sanitation. Meanwhile, millions of adults and children suffer from diseases that could be prevented with on-site containment and treatment of excreta.

The late 20th century rush to sewer has created a widening gap in access to adequate sanitation. The lion's share of investment in environmental sanitation goes to sewerage in urban areas, subsidizing services for the middle class and rich. United Nations statistics show that only 18 per cent of rural residents in developing countries have access to sanitation, compared with 63 per cent in cities. Nearly 3 billion people do not have access to any sanitary excreta disposal; a billion more than the entire global population when John Snow was making the connection between cholera and the water coming out of a standpipe in London.

Epidemiologists studying historical records can point to the impact of sanitation on people's health. Life expectancy increased as access to clean water and sanitation increased. Sewers played their part, moving pathogens from more to less populated areas. Diseases like typhoid and cholera saw dramatic reductions in urban populations with access to sewerage. But we are only beginning to understand the long-term health and environmental costs of sewers. And the world is a much more crowded place than it was when the first sewers were built.

Laura Orlando

Background Information

Sustainable Sanitation, Part 2 - Current Practices

Sustainable Sanitation, Part 3 - Future Trends

Information about sewage sludge and the hazards of its application on land

Articles about sewerage and sewage sludge

ReSource Musings Archive