The way a city manages its sanitation is a reflection of its civilization progress, Paris leaves many cities behind by a mile. The Paris sewer system – part of which has been turned into a museum that’s open to the public- is actually like small tunnels with small walkways on the sides between which lies the channel on which one can ply a boat if you want!

There is never a reason to be surprised to see water pouring out of the bell caps beside the roads in Paris. It is an example of the engineering, design, and vision of the city.  Napoleon Bonaparte, the Emperor Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and a brilliant engineer called Eugène Belgrand are the main people responsible for sewers, a place where many would like to visit, as perhaps the glamorous icons of the great city, if only just to see the dedication and foresight that has gone into creating such a prophetic system.

Centuries back the river Seine was diverted into the Ourcq canal. Napoleon 3 decided to rid the city of that time of many narrow crooked streets and give the city up-to-date infrastructure. The responsibility finally went to Eugène Belgrand, a graduate of the world-renowned École Polytechnique, who was appointed Director of Water and Sewers of Paris. Belgrand made the sewage system four times larger than it had been before. This is something that was truly intelligent because cities tend to grow and their civic structure should be planned for future growth.

The system separated water for human consumption and other purposes. This was very futuristic idea at that time. The initial costs were far higher than they would have been for a single system.

Washing the streets

Paris streets are cleaned in a unique way with water. Though this system is not being used as much since it uses a lot of water, it is still a sight that arouses curiosity for the uninitiated. Water emerges from a curbside opening, or washing outlets, known as bouches de lavage in French. It is suggested there are 12,000 of these in Paris.

In the larger hole over the water outlet, workmen insert a special wrench to turn the water valve to start or stop the flow of water. The larger pieces and leaves, paper, plastic and other rubbish go into the plastic bags in the cart while the remaining is swept away.

This might appear as a simplistic way of doing it but it has come about due to a long history and development of sweeping, cleaning and sewage management system in Paris which evolved over almost three centuries. Paris is one of the few cities in the world to have it.

In Paris, there are two different sets of underground water pipes, attached to the ceilings of the sewers. One supplies untreated water for cleaning streets which comes out at various places through outlets on the sidewalk and road corners which flows back into the underground sewers is treated and discharged into the Seine.

Despite having potable water pipes and non potable water pipes so close each other and passing through sewer channels, affixed on its top, the water doesn’t mix and is totally safe only because it was part of the original plan for modernization of the city in the mid-nineteenth century. No city in the world can create this system now because of the sheer logistics.

The river Ourcq water was called “public water”. Underground pumps drew water into huge tanks over buildings and that became the potable water source. This dual water system is followed till date to clean streets with water. Water gushes out from gutter drains and municipal corporation workers use brooms to clear debris and sweep it clean. One man drives the truck and another hoses the side roads with a high-pressure hose. The truck carries untreated water. This is what happens above the surface but the real happening scene is underground!

Sewers of Paris

The Paris sewer system- is a complex, vast and intricate labyrinth. The sewers are actually like tunnels which follow the layout of the roads. On its ‘ceiling’ are pipes that supply the city’s fresh water, telecom wires and cables etc. In fact the sewers also have street signs inside so one knows where he is if he ever gets lost in it! In other words, with a street map of Paris city, one could walk the underground sewers if he wished- all 2,100km of it underneath Paris!

History

Till the middle ages, waste was simply directed through small drains through the city into the Seine river. With a smaller population, other than the stench, it was not such a daunting issue. The water in the river swept it away and purified itself biologically.

All this came to a head in 1832 when cholera struck Paris, wiping off a large part of the population. In 1850 an engineer named Eugène Belgrand was hired to design a complete system for water supply and waste removal. In merely 2 decades, it had become a system almost 600km long.

Paris sewers have been a tourist attraction since 1867, when the first public tours were offered. From 1892 to 1920, visitors rode through the sewers in a locomotive-drawn wagon. In 1920 the wagon was replaced with a boat, which floated tourists along until 1975.

Today’s sewer tour consists of a very small portion of the sewers which has been turned into a museum. In order to read all the signs describing the timeline of sewer construction, visitors have to stand on a metal grating over an active sewer channel; this arrangement serves to keep traffic moving at a lively pace.

Waste management in Paris

In France, the local authorities in charge of picking up and treating waste have the sovereign right to choose from amongst the financing instruments allowed by law. The municipalities’ diversity explains the heterogeneity of the financing instruments, with small entities opting for incentive fees whereas the large cities tend to choose a flat tax.

That is the reason inter-municipal cooperation has boomed over the past decade.

Some groups of municipalities are specialized in waste collection and financed by taxation; other, larger, groups are in charge of waste treatment and receive fees paid by the member authorities.

The local authorities that are responsible for waste management choose from amongst various ways of managing this most complex service, i.e., direct provision of the service, provision through a public agency, public procurement contracts, and delegation. In this context, the enterprises that are specialized in this sector are expanding, concentrating their action on treatment and recycling.

Public waste services in France are managed to a large extent by private companies that are awarded contracts after calls for tenders, especially in the areas of incineration, composting, and storage, as well as for the pickup and transport of waste. The authorities try to avoid being too dependent on a single private operator with a monopoly over the services. In the case of Paris, the city itself continues to collect its waste.

All this makes the city of Paris such a unique place in the world. Collections of waste, disposal, sewage disposal, treatment and the amazing labyrinth that lies below the roads should actually claim to be a wonder of the world despite being something no one really likes to think or talk about much.