“A mine of wealth”? The Victorians and the agricultural value of sewage

Poo gurus? Researching the threats and opportunities presented by human waste

“…Sewage irrigation was also attempted but storage difficulties and transport costs made animal manure more competitive as a fertilizer (Goddard 1996). In the twentieth century, meanwhile, similar ideas were emphasized by organicists such as Picton (1946), Balfour (1943) Howard (1940 and Howard and Wad (1931) who argued that when detached from "associations of dirt, animal and human dung becomes something to care for and return to the land in properly composted form" (Matless, 2001, p. 368).…”

“…1 Although geographers have carried out some fascinating work on animal manure as a pollutant (Lowe et al, 1997;Seymour and Clark, 1991;Ivey et al, 2006) and a fertilizer (Chisholm, 1961;Baker, 1973;Widgren, 1979;Adams and Mortimore, 1997;Harris, 1999;Harris and Yusuf, 2001;Matless, 2001;Robbins, 2004;Jewitt and Baker, 2006;Baker and Jewitt, 2007;Grantham, 2007;Ingram, 2008;Williams, 2008), only a small number of geographers have been actively engaged in research that deals with human waste; and most of this work deals with it in somewhat tangential (though nonetheless important) ways. Examples include research within medical geography on faecal transmission routes (Anderson, 1947;May, 1950;1952;Howe, 1963;1980;Haviland, 1982;Haggett, 1994;Rupke, 2000;Smallman-Raynor et al, 2001;2004a;2004b;Cliff et al, 2004;Abrahams, 2006), cultural and historical geographies of agriculture, organicism, sanitation and cholera (Bacon 1956;Smith 1975;Kearns 1984;1989;1991;Sheail 1993;Colten 1994;Goddard 1996: Matless, 2001Gandy, 2005Krantz, 2006: McFarlane, 2008a) and wider theoretical conceptualisations of dirt (Krantz 2006;…”

Can corporate social responsibility resolve the sanitation question in developing Asian countries?

“…This period was characterised by households making their own sanitation arrangements and by high levels of localised pollution and poor public health. These conditions led to the 'sanitation revolution' in the mid-1800s (Goddard 1996) and to the next stage, of centralised infrastructure. This saw the construction of large scale piped infrastructures that brought safe water supplies into cities, and transported water-borne human waste out of cities, which addressed both the urban pollution and public health issues, as well as fire protection and flood mitigation (through stormwater systems), and underpinned the development of modern day cities.…”

Urban metabolism and river systems: an historical perspective – Paris and the Seine, 1790–1970

“…Even so, up to the 1920s, the people in charge of removing urban and human sewage were not content to simply evacuate it via the river. As in other cities (see for instance : Tarr, 1975;Hamlin, 1980;Goddard, 1996;Mårald, 2002), excreta represented a source of manure and exploitation of this resource was considered vital to the survival of populations. Its processing brought important profits to the many stakeholders involved in its handling: cesspool contractors, fertilizer-makers, City of Paris, farmers, etc.…”