3

Europe’s Sewage Crisis

第三章

欧洲的污水危机

As Western civilization made the transition from medieval to the modern era, the systems that had been developed to provide water and remove wastes struggled to keep up with increasing population densities. A new approach was needed if cities were going to continue their rapid growth. In response to the problems caused by inadequate and polluted water supplies, each city relied on its own ideas about public health, aesthetics, and the role ofthe state in civil affairs in order to develop urban water systems that were best suited for their particular climates and geographic features. The differences in the water infrastructures developed in carious European cities have diminished over time, but they can still be seen in the practices andattitudes of modern Europeans.

当西方文明逐渐从中世纪向现代过渡时，已有的供水和排污系统只能勉为其难地跟随着日益增长的人口密度。如果这些城市要维持其快速发展，必须有一套新的供水系统。为应对供水不足及水体污染所引起的诸多问题，每座城市会依据其在公共卫生、审美，以及市政府在民政事务中所起作用的理念，发展一套适合各自特殊气候和地理特征的城市水系统。随着时间的推移，不同的欧洲城市开发的水利基础设施，其差异逐渐缩小。但从现代欧洲人的具体实践和认知观念仍能看出这种城市间的差异。

These differences are best understood by exploring the development of urban water infrastructure in the two largest cities of the period—London andParis. Both cities are located on the banks of major rivers (the Thames and the Seine, respectively), and both experienced rapid population growth starting inthe sixteenth century, with populations crossing the one million mark near the beginning of the nineteenth century. When demand for water exceeded its supplyand wastes from the densely populated cities started to foul the streets and polluted the water supply, London and Paris both started building up their water infrastructures.

厘清这种城市间差异的最好方式是探索当时世界上最大的两座城市———伦敦和巴黎———的水利基础设施发展状况。这两座城市分别位于泰晤士河和塞纳河河畔。从１６世纪开始，这两座城市都经历了高速的人口增长，１９世纪初的人口规模已超１００万。当城市的用水供不应求、人口密集城市的粪便开始污染街道和供水的时候，伦敦和巴黎都开始建造自己的水利基础设施。

(Last three paragraphs of Chapter 3)

Although the attempt by Paris’s leaders to reuse its citizens’ wastesfor agriculture was laudable, it was ultimately impractical, because continued growth meant that there was not enough land to spread all of the waste close tothe city. Attempts to apply more sewage than the crops could handle would inevitably lead to decreased crop yields and foul odors emanating from the “sewage sick” farms. If sewage farms were to succeed, more land would beneeded.³⁷

尽管巴黎的官员尝试把粪便用于农业生产的做法值得称赞，但这种做法最终是不切实际的。因为城市规模的持续增长，意味着城市周围没有足够的土地来利用所有的粪便。试图把过多的污水用于污水农场，可能会超过农作物的承受度。这么做，将不可避免地导致作物产量下降，以及来自“污水过饱和”农场散发出的恶臭。若要污水农田获得成功，唯一的办法是要有更多的土地^［３７］。

In the 1920s, civic leaders proposed an ambitious plan to build apipeline to take the wastes of Paris to sites in the Champagne region 140 km (87 miles) west of the city.³⁸ The project would permanently solve the city’ssewage problem by increasing the acreage of sewage farms tenfold. Ultimately, theproject was never built, because the price of fertilizer had dropped too muchto make the recycling of nutrients attractive.³⁹ In addition, by this time agronomistshad realized that the mixture of nutrients in human waste contained lessphosphorus than plants needed. When the lower cost of imported fertilizer andthe need to supplement sewage with phosphorus were both factored into theanalysis, sewage farms became less attractive.

２０世纪２０年代，市政府官员提出了一个庞大的计划，即修建一条管道线，将巴黎的粪便输送到市区以西１４０公里的香槟区^［３８］。这个项目拟通过增加１０倍污水农田的面积，来一劳永逸地解决巴黎的污水处理问题。但这个项目最终并未实施，因为化肥的价格下降得太多，以至于利用粪便中营养成分的做法不再具有吸引力^［３９］。此外，这时农学家们已经意识到人类粪便中混合营养物质的含磷量低于植物生长所需的磷的用量。综合考虑廉价的进口肥料和需要向污水中补充磷元素两方面因素，污水农田就不再具有吸引力。

By the end of the nineteenth century, Paris and London had both givenup on the prospect of reusing human waste because other sources of fertilizerwere readily available. To protect public health, sewage was being dischargeddirectly into the Seine and Thames. The water intakes had either been moved upstream or water was being imported from less contaminated sources outside ofthe cities. The water supply was safe and secure. Problem solved—unless, ofcourse, you lived downstream.

到１９世纪末，巴黎和伦敦都放弃了继续利用人类粪便，因为其他来源的肥料已经很容易获得。为保护当地居民的健康，污水直接被排入塞纳河和泰晤士河。取水口移到河流的上游，或者从城外污染较轻的地方取水。这样的供水既安全，也有保障。城市污水问题解决了———除非你是生活在下游地区。

ps. I typed up the English myself, so errors are possible.

水４．０：饮用水的过去、现在与未来

［美］戴维·塞德拉克　著

徐向荣　等译    虞左俊　校

上海科学技术出版社

出版时间：2015.08

ISBN：978-7-5478-2729-1

定价：38元

Water 4.0: The Past, Present, and Future of the World's Most Vital Resource

Paperback：March 31, 2015

by David Sedlak (Author)