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On sunny days, the Roman citizens of Ostia
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could be found on a long stone bench near the Forum.
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Friends and neighbors exchanged news and gossip
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while simultaneously attending to more... urgent business.
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These public latrines could sit up to 20 Romans at a time,
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draining waste in water conduits below.
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Today, most cultures consider trips to the restroom to be a more private occasion.
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But even when going alone, our shared sewage infrastructure
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is one of the most pivotal inventions in the history of humanity.
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While many ancient religious texts contain instructions
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for keeping waste away from drinking water and campsites,
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waste management took a more familiar shape as early as 3000 BCE.
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Ancient Mesopotamian settlements often had clay structures
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made for squatting or sitting in the most private room of the house.
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These were connected to pipes which used running water to move waste
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into street canals and cesspits.
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Water infrastructure like this flourished in the Bronze Age,
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and in some parts of the Indus Valley,
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nearly every house had a toilet connected to a citywide sewage system.
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Ancient Cretan palaces even offered a manual flushing option.
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Researchers can't say for certain what inspired these early sewage systems,
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but we do know that waste management is essential for public health.
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Untreated sewage is a breeding ground for dangerous microorganisms,
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including those that cause cholera, dysentery, and typhoid.
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It would be several millennia before scientists fully understood
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the relationship between sewage and sickness.
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But the noxious odors of sewage have recorded associations with disease
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as early as 100 BCE.
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And by 100 AD, more complex sanitation solutions were emerging.
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The Roman Empire had continuously flowing aqueducts
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dedicated to carrying waste outside city walls.
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Chinese dynasties of the same period also had private and public toilets,
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except their waste was immediately recycled.
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Most household toilets fed into pig sties,
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and specialized excrement collectors gathered waste from public latrines
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to sell as fertilizer.
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In China, this tradition of waste management continued for centuries,
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but in Europe the fall of the Roman Empire
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brought public sanitation into the Dark Ages.
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Pit latrines called “gongs” became commonplace,
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and chamber pots were frequently dumped into the street.
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Castles ejected waste from tall windows into communal cesspits.
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At night, so-called gong farmers would load up the waste
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before traveling beyond city limits to dump their cargo.
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Europe's unsanitary approach persisted for centuries,
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but toilets themselves underwent some major changes.
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By the late Middle Ages, most wealthy families had commode stools—
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wooden boxes with seats and lids.
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And in the royal court of England,
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the commodes were controlled by the Groom of the Stool.
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In addition to monitoring the king's intestinal health,
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the Groom's... intimate relationship with the monarch
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made him a surprisingly influential figure.
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The next major leap in toilet technology came in 1596,
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when Sir John Harrington designed the first modern flush toilet
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for Queen Elizabeth.
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Its use of levers to release water and a valve to drain the bowl
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still inform modern designs.
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But Harrington's invention stank of sewage.
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Thankfully, in 1775, Scottish inventor Alexander Cumming
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added a bend in the drainpipe to retain water and limit odors.
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This so-called S-trap was later improved into the modern U-bend by Thomas Crapper—
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though the term “crap” predates the inventor by several centuries.
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By the turn of the 19th century,
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many cities had developed modern sewage infrastructure
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and wastewater treatment plants,
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and today, toilets have a wide range of features,
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from the luxurious to the sustainable.
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But roughly 2 billion people still don't have their own toilets at home.
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And another 2.2 billion don't have facilities
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that properly manage their waste,
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putting these communities at risk of numerous diseases.
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To solve this problem, we'll need to invent new sanitation technologies
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and address the behavioral, financial, and political issues
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that produce inequity throughout the sanitation pipeline.