Paris sewers
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The sewers of the
History
Until the Middle Ages, the drinking water in Paris was taken from the river Seine. The wastewater was poured onto fields or unpaved streets, and finally filtered back into the Seine. Around 1200, Phillipe Auguste had the Parisian streets paved, incorporating a drain for wastewater in their middle. In 1370 Hugues Aubriot, a Parisian provost had a vaulted, stone-walled sewer built in the "rue Montmartre". This sewer collected the wastewater and took it to the "Menilmontant brook". However, the wastewater was still drained in the open air.[1]
Under the reign of
In 1855, as a part of his plan to improve the sanitation and traffic circulation in Paris,
From Belgrand to the present
Belgrand's successors went on extending the Parisian network: from 1914 to 1977, more than 1000 km of new sewers were built.
At the end of World War I, the 50 km² of sewage fields were no longer sufficient to protect the Seine. A general sewage treatment programme, designed to meet the needs for 50 years, was drawn up and became state-approved in 1935: this was the beginning of industrial sewage treatment.[citation needed]
The aim was to carry all the Parisian wastewater to the Achères treatment plant using a network of effluent channels. Since then, the Achères plant has continued to grow. At the end of 1970, it was one of the biggest sewage treatment plants in Europe. Its actual capacity is more than 2 million cubic metres per day.[citation needed]
This programme has been gradually upgraded: modernization of the Achères and Noisy-le-Grand (a small station farther upstream) facilities, construction of a new plant at Valenton, and expansion of the Colombes experimental station.[citation needed]
Modernization now and in the future
The aims of the modernization programme launched by the Mayor of Paris in 1991 were: to protect the Seine from storm overflow pollution by reducing the amount of untreated water discharged directly into the Seine, to reinforce the existing sewers, to enable the network to function better.[citation needed]
This project, which is costing an estimated 152 million euros over the first 5 years, will include:[citation needed]
- the refurbishing of the old sewers in bad condition,
- the renovation of pumping stations,
- the construction of new sewers,
- the installation of measuring devices and automated flow control management,
- the improving of the management of solid waste and grit,
- the development of the computerised network management system.
The sewer in fiction
The sewer system is described in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, Les Misérables (Part 5, Jean Valjean; Book II, The Intestine of the Leviathan, ch.1, The Land Impoverished by the Sea): "...Paris has another Paris under herself; a Paris of sewers; which has its streets, its crossings, its squares, its blind alleys, its arteries, and its circulation, which is slime, minus the human form",[1] and also appears in a scene near the end of the musical based on the novel.
The sewer system plays a key part in
The sewer features in a section of Max Brook's World War Z. Many people fled to the sewers to escape the dead, but were followed, leaving one of the most dangerous campaigns of the "war".
In the American television show The Honeymooners episode "The Man from Space", broadcast 31 December 1955, sewer worker Ed Norton comes in dressed as an 18th-century fop, and announces that he will win the Raccoon lodge costume ball because he is dressed as "Pierre Francois de la Brioski, designer of the Paris sewers." Norton later corrected himself and said he found out that Brioski was the man who "condemned the Paris sewers."[5]
Museum
The Paris Sewer Museum (French: Musée des Égouts de Paris) is dedicated to the sewer system of Paris. Tours of the sewage system have been popular since the 1800s and are currently conducted at the sewers. Visitors are able to walk upon raised walkways directly above the sewage itself. The entrance is near the Pont de l'Alma.
See also
References
- ^ a b "The Sewers of Paris: A Brief History". mtholyoke.edu. 2010. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
- ^ "Les égouts parisiens". paris.fr. 2010. Archived from the original on October 3, 2006. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
- ^ .
- ^ yosomono (2010). "World's biggest balls". gaijinass.wordpress.com. Retrieved February 23, 2010.
- ^ Terrace, Vincent. Television Series of the 1950s: Essential Facts and Quirky Details. Rowman & Littlefield.
Bibliography
- Donald Reid (1991) Paris Sewers and Sewermen: Realities and Representations, ISBN 0-674-65462-5
External links
- Media related to Égouts de Paris at Wikimedia Commons