In the usual sanitary sewer system we use drinking water to move waste through pipes towards resource recovery plants (wastewater treatment plants). Across the US the infrastructure is in disrepair and needs a lot of attention, so getting a wasteful system running right is going to take a huge investment. Why don’t we take an opportunity to rethink how we move our waste? I would love to hear ideas folks have for a system that could work in cities that would be more efficient than water/gravity driven pipes.
I totally agree. People who know about these systems don’t have a better idea (that I have heard), and in an area where water is not treated or infrastructure has actually been updated in the last 70 years there probably isn’t the same meeting of need and opportunity that would make a change a good idea.
To the best of my knowledge though there aren’t many major municipality that have safe drinking water that don’t treat their water before sending it out to the people (at considerable cost). You are absolutely right that changing the system would require a huge investment like it took to establish indoor plumbing v1.0, but the system is from the 1800s and is due for a revolution. I don’t know what that will look like, but I think asking the question of folks - especially people who aren’t indoctrinated with the way things are - is very worthwhile. You never know where the next breakthrough will come from.
One last thought on gravity feed sewer systems - we pay and have the infrastructure to pump the drinking water uphill to ‘charge’ the drinking water system (eg watertowers), so that gravity feed is not free.