Paris Waste Issue
Throughout history Paris has had a waste issue, and this issue still exists today. For centuries Parisians would relieve themselves directly onto the street whenever necessary. This results in foul odors and unclean streets, an undesirable trait for a city. Although this is common throughout the city, it was, and continues to be, most popular around areas with night life. Recent efforts have been made in the city of Paris to encourage Parisians to relieve themselves in plastic, open-air urinals known as a “uritrottoir”. The bright red plastic bins (as seen in Figure 1) were installed along streets and sidewalks. This product is essentially as easy to use as it is to relive oneself on the street, however, it is only accessible for able-bodied people with male genitalia.
A project called Equalettes noticed the inequality of the uritrottoir and proposed a public toilet product which are accessible to all. These small structures are battery powered, wheelchair accessible, and can be moved to any location around the city whenever necessary. The design of the Equalettes also includes bamboo plants incorporated in the structure to improve smell and aesthetic. Although the project has not been approved for construction, it is significantly more inclusive and functional than the existing uritrottoir (Capezzuto, 1).
Figure 1. The Paris “uritrottoir”, and open-air urinal product, in use on the streets of Paris.
What do rats think of the sewage system?
In George Gordon Hoskins’ An Hour with a Sewer Rat; or, A Few Plain Hints on House Drainage and Sewer Gas, Hoskins recounts a fictional story of a conversation he had with a sewer rat about the sewage system and its faults. What is interesting about this piece of writing is its character which creates a whimsical aspect to the otherwise relatively tedious amount of information about sewage systems. Another unique aspect of this writing is that the rat brings a new perspective to the sewage system which allows the reader to think about the mechanics from a different context (2).
When thinking about a sewage system, one does not consider the fact that said system is considered home for sewage rats. However, understanding a sewage system from that point of view changes how one approaches the design. As Hoskins describes from the rat’s perspective, hair and exhausted matches create the most blockage within the systems, and on top of that, grease and oil waste create a coating inside the pipes, which reduces their diameter. These are common sewage waste products, however, they frequently render sewage pipes ineffective (2).
The Paris Sewage System
In Matthew Gandy’s The Paris sewers and the rationalization of urban space, Gandy focuses on the rebuilding of Paris in the late 1800’s and how the city updated their sewage system, resulting in a total shift of the city. He beings by explaining the important of sewage systems and what they truly represent in a society. Although sewage commonly accepted as a dirty process with foul smells and waste, sewage systems can also be seen as a “symbol of progress” (p 24). This is due to their association with better hygiene, with shifts in water usage, and with modern technology and progress (3).
Gandy also describes that the very concept of water in 19th century Paris was seen as a comforting and unchanging constant in a quickly progressing world. With the Industrial Revolution in full force, daily life drastically shifted to accommodate for the constant new innovations and realizations that were taking place at the time. One of the reasons water became a symbol for consistency and the “unchanging” is due to the uprise in factories, a result of the Industrial Revolution, which polluted the air with smoke and toxins. Fresh air, which was once in infinite supply, suddenly was difficult to come by. Water, however, was not polluted in this way and was a way for people to connect with the natural and elemental world in the industrialized city of Paris (3). This concept is illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2. “Bathers at Asnie`res’” By Georges-Pierre Seurat (1884) illustrates the comfort of water as the Industrial Revolution pollutes the air.
It’s all about Perspective
Gandy describes the work of Felix Nadar, a popular French photographer in the 1800’s. Although Nadar started his career as a portrait photographer, he began to embrace politics, science, and new technology as the subject for his art. Nadar photographed spaces which were not considered “beautiful” such as the catacombs, and eventually, the Paris sewage system (Figure 3). Photos of the sewage system such as these by Nadar were non existent at the time. Nadar’s unique choice in photographing elements of Paris which no one was supposed to see was equally as artistically creative as it was extremely helpful in the process of redesigning or repairing the sewage system. These photos of the sewage system allowed the opportunity for engineers to inspect the parts of the sewage system which needed repairs or updates, and even aided them in major redesigning and reworking efforts (Gandy, 3).
The unique perspective which Nadar’s photographs allow for is not unlike that of Hoskins’ sewer rat. Although the sewer rat is a fictional character, it effectively forces Hoskins to examine the elements of the sewage system more closely. Hoskins benefited from his conversation with the rat boy gaining a new perspective, just as Nadar provided a new perspective for city planners to rework the sewage system (3). This goes to show that gaining new perspectives can be incredibly valuable in any situation, even when discussing a sewage system.
Figure 3. Felix Nadar’s Paris Sewage System Photography.
Bibliography
1. Capezzuto, Eloisa, et al. “Equalettes.” Https://static1.Squarespace.com/Static/59b599f88419c20a25d86fcf/t/5b6cb5f8aa4a992cbaac24ed/1533851129 625/Equalettes.pdf.
2. George Gordon Hoskins. An Hour with a Sewer Rat; or, A Few Plain Hints on House Drainage and Sewer Gas. 1879. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/anhourwithasewe00hoskgoog/page/n72/mode/2up
3. Gandy, Matthew. “The Paris Sewers and the Rationalization of Urban Space.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 24, no. 1, [Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), Wiley], 1999, pp. 23–44.
Image Sources
Figure 1. Gillespie, James. “Testing Paris’s New Public Pissoir – the Uritrottoir.” News | The Sunday Times, The Sunday Times, 18 Aug. 2018, www.thetimes.co.uk/article/testing-pariss-new-public-pissoir-the-uritrottoir- wwgj9g8tv.
Figure 2. Gandy, Matthew. “The Paris Sewers and the Rationalization of Urban Space.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, vol. 24, no. 1, [Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), Wiley], 1999, pp. 23–44.
Figure 3. Glenn, Ezra Haber. “Photographing Haussmann’s Paris.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-02/the-19th-century-photographer-that-captured-haussmann-s- paris.