Objectives of On-Site Wastewater Disposal

Abstract

Since ancient times man has disposed of his excreta and other wastes on the site where the wastes are generated. Probably the first disposal technology developed in response to a need for some kind of a management scheme to minimize the aesthetic problems, since early man most certainly did not perceive any connection between improper waste disposal and public health. Something akin to a crude pit-latrine probably was the first effort to minimize the offensive impact of indiscriminate discharge of human excreta on the land. Undoubtedly, the environmental and aesthetic insults must have become so obnoxious that the first aspiring sanitary engineers probably decided there must be a better way to manage the problem. Thus the pit-latrine or simple privy probably partially alleviated the nuisance and sufficed for many centuries. But as the population grew and man started to crowd together in urban areas, the problem of on-site waste disposal must have again become unmanageable. So, historically, sewer technology probably was developed in response to population density. Initially engineers concentrated on the collection and transportation phase using water carriage to remove the wastes from the densely population cities.