Sanitation - History

History

Further information: History of water supply and sanitation

The earliest evidence of urban sanitation was seen in Harappa, Mohenjo-daro and the recently discovered Rakhigarhi of Indus Valley civilization. This urban plan included the world's first urban sanitation systems. Within the city, individual homes or groups of homes obtained water from wells. From a room that appears to have been set aside for bathing, waste water was directed to covered drains, which lined the major streets.

Roman cities and Roman villas had elements of sanitation systems, delivering water in the streets of towns such as Pompeii, and building stone and wooden drains to collect and remove wastewater from populated areas - see for instance the Cloaca Maxima into the River Tiber in Rome. But there is little record of other sanitation in most of Europe until the High Middle Ages. Unsanitary conditions and overcrowding were widespread throughout Europe and Asia during the Middle Ages, resulting periodically in cataclysmic pandemics such as the Plague of Justinian (541-42) and the Black Death (1347–1351), which killed tens of millions of people and radically altered societies.

Very high infant and child mortality prevailed in Europe throughout medieval times, due not only to deficiencies in sanitation but to an insufficient food supply for a population which had expanded faster than agriculture. This was further complicated by frequent warfare and exploitation of civilians by autocratic rulers. Sanitation has been a major challenge in the 21st Century. There are many countries that are struggling with diseases due to unhealthy living conditions and unfiltered water all in the name of bad sanitation.

Sanitation refers to the safe disposal of human excreta (Mara, Lane and Scott and Trouba,1). This entails the hygienic disposal and treatment of human waste to avoid affecting the health of people. Sanitation is an essential part of the Millennium Development Goals. The most affected countries are in the developing world (Zawahri, Sowers, and Weinthal 1153). Population increase in the developing world has posed challenges in the improvement of sanitation (Konteh 69). According to Zawari, Sowers, and Weinthal (1154), lack of provisions of basic sanitation is estimated to have contributed to the deaths of approximately 3.5 million people annually from water borne diseases.