I see poop jokes coming
June 6, 2018 7:31 AM   Subscribe

The disposing of our waste In my travels, I have found any one place is advanced as their sewage system. I am fascinated by how much waste affects our health. The problem is doesn’t seem to be part of the discussions regarding health.
posted by Yellow (2 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Heya, posts need to be framed without the "here's my personal opinion/experience with this" stuff; that can go in the comments but not in the post itself. Let us know if you'd like to edit. -- LobsterMitten



 
Considering the sort of infrastructure it takes to really operate a decent sewage system it's not surprising that a quick way to evaluate the developedness of an area is to check the sewage treatment.

Just about everyone has phones because despite being complex, phones are relatively self contained. Cell towers can be erected quickly and don't rely much on other infrastructure. You can even operate them entirely off solar and/or diesel generators if you need to and skip the need for even an electrical infrastructure.

But working flush toilets?

For that you need pumped water to the home, which means an electrical grid, a water treatment and distribution system, sewage from the home which means a sewage distribution system, a sewage treatment plant which means not merely an electrical grid but also a whole swathe of spare parts, chemicals, and so on.

Basically you can't have flush toilets [1] in towns and cities without a massive infrastructure to support them, and the existence of that sort of massive infrastructure implies all sorts of other infrastructure investments and an economy that can support them.


So it isn't really surprising that you can get a good guess about the economic and governmental health of a place simply by seeing if the sewage system works.

[1] Leaving aside for the moment septic tank type systems.
posted by sotonohito at 7:47 AM on June 6, 2018


Some years ago, I was out with a friend and his 8 year old son. We walked past a manhole which said, "Sanitary Sewer." The kid asked, "How can that be sanitary? Sewage is nasty." I asked him, "Think of how sanitary the city would be without sewers." A few seconds later he went, "ohhhhhhh I get it." The idea of a place being as advanced as its sewage system is actually pretty sound.
posted by azpenguin at 7:48 AM on June 6, 2018


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