BENEATH OUR FEET 

WATER

In 2000 world water consumption was over 6 times greater than 100 years earlier. The global average water footprint per person is currently 1,385 cubic metres per year,. with the average US American consuming twice as much.

Ground, surface and, in some cases, sea water are purified by removing chemicals, contaminants, solids and gases. Most water is then disinfected by chlorination and has fluoride added. Treated water is stored in reservoirs, tanks or water towers. From here it is pumped,  via a complex network of pipes hidden beneath our feet, into our homes.

THE WATER NETWORK

Providing tap water to large populations requires a complex and carefully designed system of collection, storage, treatment and distribution. Water comes from a variety of locations, including groundwater [aquifers], surface water [lakes and rivers], and the sea through desalination. The water is purified by removing chemicals, contaminants, suspended solids and gases from raw supply. It is then disinfected by chlorination and often has fluoride added. Treated water then flows by gravity or is pumped to reservoirs. The water is typically pumped into storage tanks constructed at the highest local point and sometimes in a water tower. One network may have several such service reservoirs.

Once water is used, wastewater is typically discharged in a sewer system and treated in a sewage treatment plant before being returned back into a river, lake or the sea or reused for irrigation or industrial use.

HISTORY

The earliest known evidence of a drain being used for plumbing was found in Mesopotamia and is estimated to have been made around 3000 BC. Both brass and copper pipes have been found in Egypt believed to have been made close to 2500 BC. The Romans made extensive use of lead pipe by joining sheets of lead into piping to carry their water supply and waste. During the Dark Ages plumbing development virtually ceased except for isolated cases in palaces and castles. Richmond palace was one of the first buildings in western history to be equipped with a flushing lavatory, invented by Elizabeth I's godson, Sir John Harington.

Although water has been brought, sometimes by aqueduct, into London since the 1500’s it wasn’t until the Metropolis Water Act of 1852 that minimum standards of water quality were introduced and all water had to be effectively filtered. The modern networks were then started with the creation of purification systems and public water infrastructures developed by Victorian engineers and entrepreneurs. 

  

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