Climate Change Could Overwhelm Our Sewers – Here’s How Green Infrastructure Could Help
Sourced from The Conversation
Aside from hotter summers and melting glaciers, climate change is transforming how, when and where rain falls. This challenges much of the world’s sewer systems, especially with the added strains of population growth and increased urbanisation.
Victorian-era sewage systems were simply not designed for the climate we are heading towards. This has major implications for public health, water quality and urban living.
The increasing population means sewers are sometimes overwhelmed without any rainfall at all. Then, add climate change to the mix. Heavier downpours are becoming more common, which spells trouble for sewer systems that simply cannot cope with increasing volumes of water. One type of system, called a combined sewer system – the predominant type in the UK and Europe – is especially vulnerable.
These systems carry wastewater from homes and storm water from streets in the same pipes. When it rains heavily, the pipes can become overwhelmed, resulting in permitted discharges of untreated wastewater from combined sewer overflows (CSOs). This untreated overflow discharges into the ocean, rivers and streams, pollutes the environment, threatens wildlife and harms public health.
And this problem is only expected to get worse. Results from my doctoral research show climate change could triple sewage overflow discharge into waterways by 2099.
From the Living Architecture Monitor
