Sanitation networks
Introduction
The infrastructure that transports wastewater or surface runoff (rainwater and meltwater) through pipes or sewers is called sanitation network[1][2][3]. It covers components such as receiving drains, inspection wells, pumping stations,[4] stormwater overflows and screening chambers of the combined sanitation network or sewers. The sanitation network ends at the entrance to a wastewater treatment plant or at the point of discharge to the environment. It is the system of pipes, chambers, manholes, etc. that transports wastewater or rainwater.[5].
Sanitation networks are hydraulic structures that operate at atmospheric pressure, by gravity. Only very rarely, and for short stretches, are they made up of pipes that work under pressure or vacuum. They are normally made up of "Canal (hydraulic)" conduits of circular, oval or compound section, most of the time buried under public roads. In many cities, sewage (or municipal wastewater) is transported along with stormwater, in a combined sewer system, to a wastewater treatment plant. In some urban areas, wastewater is transported separately in sewers and street runoff is transported through storm drains. Access to these systems, for maintenance purposes, is normally through a manhole. During periods of high precipitation, a sanitation system may experience a combined system overflow event or a sewer overflow event, forcing raw wastewater to flow directly to receiving waters. This can pose a serious threat to public health and the surrounding environment.
The sanitation network is also called sewer network, sewer network, deep cleaning or drainage network in Latin American Spanish.
History
The oldest known sewer network is the one built in Nippur (Iraq), around the year 3750 BC. Later, ceramic conduits were used in the populated centers of Asia Minor and the Near East (Crete, 1700 BC). In Athens and Corinth, in ancient Greece, true sanitation systems were built. Rectangular channels were used, covered with flat slabs that eventually formed part of the street pavement; Other secondary ducts flowed into these, forming true sewer networks.
There are many stories and descriptions of the sewers of antiquity, perhaps the best known are those of ancient Rome, Paris and London, these last two sewers built in Europe and the United States, were mainly aimed at collecting rainwater. Used water of human origin will only begin to be connected to the sewers in 1815 in London, in Boston from 1833, and in Paris, only from 1880.[6].