Sewage

Sewage comprises the wastewaters deliberately contained, collected, and evacuated by a community, including both household and industrial wastes as well as surface runoff. There are many ways to dispose of or utilize human excreta, but in a real sense, human waste does not become “sewage” until collected by some type of sanitary technology such as a latrine or sewer, however simple. The long and complex history of sewage is strongly related to the growth of human settlements and the problems of disease and disorder arising from the spatial concentration of human wastes. Access to technologies for the safe, efficient collection and disposal or reuse of sewage varies widely around the globe, and sewage remains a major source of environmental pollution and public health threats in many parts of the world. From a social perspective, sewage is best understood as an amalgam of cultural ideas, nonhuman constituents, and technoscientific discourses and practices surrounding human sanitary waste production and disposal. The material flow of sewage connects bodies, environments, technologies, and cultural systems through space and time.