Wastewater
“Sanitation is more important than Independence” – Mahatma Gandhi
Wastewater History in a Flush
“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child” –Marcus Tullius Cicero
Wastewater management is no spring chicken; it’s been around so long that it would refuse to put candles on its birthday cake.
One of the most ancient systems originated in Mohenjo-Daro, Pakistan about 3500 years ago! Residential and commercial buildings equipped with toilets and canals were engineered with slopes to carry effluents produced from bathing and washing activities into the Indus River. This was quite an achievement for such an early civilisation. Around 1000 years later, the Cloaca Maxima was built under the orders of the king of Rome, Tarquinius Priscus. The Cloaca Maxima was the main sewer collector in Rome which was also used during the emperor times as a transportation channel. This system discharged into the Tiber River.
GIF Source
A bit later during the ruling of Eumenas II, three 42km pipes were constructed in the Madradag Mountains. These pipes had to be operated under pressure which involved a lot of mathematical calculations.
During the 12th and 13th century, Monasteries in Europe had a requirement for a reliable source of water systems due to religious reasons. Pipes made up of tree trunks, ceramic materials and lead which were used to discharge wastewater into the rivers or nearby fish ponds.
In 1860’s, the famous London sewer system was constructed. The technique used during the design of this sewer system was similar to the method of the ancient Romans 2000 years earlier.
By the mid 1800’s, populations had become so concentrated in cities around the world that outbreaks of life threatening diseases were initiated due to the presence of bacteria in polluted water.
Have We Got Our Shit Sorted?
“You will never solve poverty without solving water and sanitation” –Matt Damon
Since that time, the practice of wastewater collection and treatment has been developed and refined to its present day standards. Through biological, chemical, physical and mechanical techniques the increasing demand for waste treatment due to the boom in the human population has been stemmed, for now. But populations will continue to grow. Recently, forecasting methods have been used in the wastewater sector to better design treatment plants by predicting system loading. However, this approach is not 100% watertight due to unforeseeable risks such as changing socioeconomic, environmental, legal and political climates, which can be turbulent.
In present day, all developed countries have government bodies established to monitor and maintain their municipal wastewater systems, largely owing to the lessons learnt from the systems of old that have been highlighted above. Australia is a prime example of this, with Western Australia boasting one of the more innovative initiatives, the CRC for Water Sensitive Cities. But the strange thing is, that compared with people living in developing countries, these people pay less attention to and even flat out ignore how and why their wastewater gets transported and treated.
This could well be because our living conditions are currently some of the best in the world, and people here are too satisfied to imagine that there could possibly be a potential looming wastewater crisis. Lack of education could be pinpointed as the main reason to this issue.
Education is Not a Number 2!
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” –Nelson Mandela
There’s a proverb in China—“Education should start with children”, so why would wastewater education be any different? Early education is an important stage for every person, and the influence that education can have on a child is immense. This can be set up in a fun interactive way so that the lessons learned stick with the young people and they feel impelled to act on that knowledge. That’s not to say kids are the only ones in need of education on this topic, with influences such as the media, traditional and social, required to play a role in educating the masses of adults that are essentially still wastewater illiterate, and using this momentum to push for changes from the political world.
Historically the media as represented by newspapers and news stations have provided relatively biased views on political issues and agendas given the information distributed is controlled in some way to convey a certain view. The rise of online communities in the 21st century has given way to large online forums otherwise dubbed the social media movement made up of people who share similar views. Online communities are a form of learning environment and although the information is not always true or un-biased nevertheless creates a powerful tool to share and raise awareness for certain issues. Today, anyone can voice their own opinion in some shape or form and have the ability to share that opinion with any part of the world.
Want more on education?
Join our colleagues over at WasteWater News as they lift the lid on wastewater literacy!
Poolitics
“Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians” – Charles de Gaulle
So why is this important for applying political pressure? Well politicians (generally) listen to the majority and although they do not always immediately act upon whatever issue or change a community seeks they nonetheless acknowledge it. A politician’s primary goal is to be re-elected, it is an unfortunate state of affairs but if an action won’t secure or attract votes a politician is highly unlikely to commit to it. Political apathy is a huge problem in Australia, particularly among the 18-35 demographic who believe that their voice falls on deaf ears. While federal and state elections are mandatory to vote, local elections are resulting in dismal participation. Voters are unaware of the power local governments have in providing services and amenities.
Political change is driven by the voice of the majority which demand change. Just look at the political pressure currently being applied through various organisations, online communities and social figures which support gay marriage in Australia and the subsequent outcome of that pressure.
If a similar level of awareness and action was taken in regards to wastewater to push for political change involving legislation, regulation and improvements to infrastructure for example you wonder how quickly that change would be implemented. A key medium and opportunity for awareness to quickly grow is in the online space where information can be easily distributed to reach a significant amount of people with no geographical restrictions.
Groups of people sharing the same views or wanting a similar change have power and once that power is realised and effort is directed effectively pressure can be generated on the bodies who govern that change. In particular, in today’s society slacktivism and clicktivism is a growing concern in the online space however if this problem is resolved significant attention can be directed towards political change through awareness coupled with effective action.
Right so that deals with the children, the public, and politicians. But that still leaves a big chunk of the pie chart untouched… Big business!
Doing Your Business
“Businesses need to go beyond interest of their companies to communities they serve” – Ratan Tata
Ensuring corporations do their duty is unfortunately a task that can only be fully achieved when the companies take it upon themselves to do the right thing. As major players in society, corporations should be fully responsible if their actions are detrimental to the environment, especially when it comes to discharging their waste. Taking social responsibility for a corporation would mean doing things like:
- Providing safe disposal of waste.
- Providing a multidisciplinary integrated approach to ensure sustainable water and wastewater treatment solutions that are not only economically viable, but ensure a safe, healthy and environmentally proactive outcome for communities.
- Delivering more efficient solutions that result in facilities and treatment processes to purify wastewater.
Corporate responsibility is taking steps forward in the developed world, but in developing countries some of the time it can seem like anything goes. This may boil down to better technology in more developed areas, such as activated sludge, waste stabilization and artificial wetlands. The better technology availability leads to tighter legislation and regulations, so multinational corporations in developed countries perform more ecofriendly tasks and take more responsibility to treat pollution.
In contrast, most of companies in developing countries pay more attention to increase profit instead of taking care of the environment. Also, there are not enough resources to support these corporations introducing advanced wastewater treatments. Related laws to regulate these companies’ emission are not strict enough, and some companies place their factories in rural areas to avoid legal supervision.
This survey revealed that around half of nearly 300 entrepreneurs polled have thought about moving their whole or parts of their business out of their city due to pollution. Moving away from the problem as opposed to fixing it is probably the best strategy if you don’t want to see your ex anymore, but in the case of pollution it is hardly adequate. In order to improve this situation, governments could establish relevant laws to regulate these corporations and fund them to introduce advanced and efficient wastewater treatments.
Conclusion
“Awareness is the greatest agent for change” – Eckhart Tolle
So this concept of wastewater literacy, being aware and educated on the importance of managing our wastewater as a community is not just a direction that we should be aiming to head in, it’s as important now as it will ever be. And wastewater literacy starts with education and raising awareness today! At the end of the day, this planet is our home, and it is our duty to treat it like we would treat the little patch of land in suburban Perth that we live. We should actively participate in water management practices in family life, by doing things like using less washing powder. We should be educating the kids, teaching them to be generous to the environment. We should be actively participating in social protection of water resources and environment ranks, such as participation in the “Friends of nature” NGO environmental protection activities, to increase social awareness. The reality is that people are the real driving force of water resources and environmental protection, and through different ways of influencing the government, enterprises, we can urge them to improve policies conducive to this. But this cannot be done without everyone having a base level of knowledge on the subject – because you can’t have an opinion on something if you don’t know anything about it. Only in this way can we better protect our way of life so that as a community we can live more sustainably well into the future.
Want to see what went on behind the scenes in the creation of this blog and vlog? Check it out here in ‘The making of‘
Awesome job team! 😀
Much ado about poo 
