Highlights in Wastewater History, 2500s BC-1400s CE

Highlights in Wastewater History, 2500s BC-1400s CE

You may be involved in the wastewater industry – but what do you know about its history? How did sanitation and sewage treatment develop? Who engineered it? And when did it evolve into what we have today?  

If you’re curious, read on. Angela and Shawn from Orenco System’s “Make It Clear” podcast recently journeyed through wastewater history and returned with these highlights.

1. Bathrooms Aren’t New: Bathrooms first existed more than 4000 years ago in dwellings discovered in Mohenjo-Daro, a settlement nestled in the Indus Valley near modern day India. The “bathing rooms” had sloped floors with drains that led to an underground sewer system to allow dirty bathwater to flow away from living spaces.
2. Some Bathrooms Had Toilets: The people of Mohenjo-Daro and its sister city Harappa took sanitation very seriously. Some of the dwellings in the city/states near modern-day India and Pakistan had actual toilets built into the bathroom walls. Waste was washed away with dirty bathwater via sewer pipes to community cesspits located strategically throughout the cities.
3. Early Toilet Flushing: Around 2000 BC, the people of Knossos, Greece – who likely traded with Mohenjo-Daro entrepreneurs and learned from them about the wonders of cleanliness – built opulent palaces for their royalty. The palaces even had sanitary systems with flowing water, toilets, bathtubs, and underground plumbing that would flush waste away to nearby tributaries and rivers.
4. Wonders of Roman Engineering: From the 6^th century BC, the Coloca Maxima, a giant aqueduct winding through Rome, moved millions of gallons of dirty water per day from public bathhouses, latrines, and fountains to the Tibor River. It still stands today as one of Rome’s many architectural and engineering marvels.
5. Rome’s Microscopic Invasion: Public bathhouses and other such gathering places encouraged good hygiene – but they also encouraged diseases to spread after countless people, some with viruses and infected wounds, continually used the same bathwater every day. To make matters worse, bathers used tersoria, or communal sponges-on-a-stick dipped in vinegar, to clean themselves.

The good news is that, compared to ancient techniques, wastewater treatment processes made great strides starting in the 1800s. Read about the big shift in our next installment, “Highlights in Wastewater History, 1800s-1940s.”