Page 5 - Urban water supply handbook

URBAN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

1.4 HISTORY, PLANNING, OUTSOURCING

for control and use. In the third millennium B.C. time period the Indus civilization
had bathrooms in houses and sewers in streets. The Mesopotamians were not far
behind (Adams, 1981). In the second millennium B.C. the Minoan civilization on
Crete had running water and flushing latrines (Evans, 1964). The Minoan and
Mycenaean settlements used cisterns 1000 years before the classical and
Hellenistic Greek cities. Water runoff from rooftops was stored in the cisterns
which supplied water for the households through the dry summers of the
Mediterranean. Between the time of the fall of the Minoan civilization and before
the (flowering) growth of the Greek culture (1100–700 B.C.), the Aegean societies
were in disarray.
Around 3000 B.C. the first true urban settlements appeared in ancient
Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. These settlements (societies) had elab-
orate religious, political, and military hierarchies. The areas devoted to the activi-
ties of the elite were often highly planned and regular in form, whereas the
residential areas often grew by a slow process of accretion resulting in complex
and irregular patterns. Greek cities did not follow a single pattern, but grew from
old villages. Figure 1.1 shows locations of selected Greek sites, some of which are
discussed in this chapter.
In consolidating their empire, the Romans engaged in extensive building of
cities. Rome resulted from centuries of irregular growth with particular temple and
public districts that were highly planned. The Roman military and colonial towns
were laid out in a variation of the grid. As an example, the layout of London, Paris,
and many European cities resulted from these Roman origins. Because cities
needed a healthy water supply, locations along rivers and streams or underground
watercourses were always favored. When cities were small, obtaining clean water
and disposing of wastes was not a major problem; however, as cities grew to larger
populations and much higher densities there was a much greater need for public
infrastructure. Figure 1.2 illustrates the extent of the Roman Empire with selected
sites, some of which are discussed in this chapter.
Historically, settlements and communities relied on natural sources to obtain
their water. Supplying large quantities such as for fountains (e.g., the Treni
Fountain in Rome) was a luxury few communities and states could afford before
the Roman era. The most common method of collecting water was saving rain-
water in rooftop reservoirs and cisterns. This method was used by the Minoans and
Mycenaeans and later by the classical and Hellenistic Greeks, and then the
Romans. In fact cisterns are still used throughout the world for storing rainwater
for various purposes and as the most common method of providing water at loca-
tions without adequate or safe on-site supplies. Before running-water supplies
were made possible by conduits and aqueducts, many Roman cities relied upon
cisterns and storage tanks. Cisterns ranged from individual use for houses to com-
munal cisterns. Probably the most impressive and immense cistern ever built by
the Romans was the Piscina Mirabilis near Pozzuoli in the bay of Naples, Italy.

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