A~hisloryoflolets.

0n sunny days, the Roman dtfze.ns of Ostia could be found on a lot'II stone bench near the Forum. Frtends and nel&hbors
exchanpd news and 1oulp while slmultaneously attendinc to more ... uraent business. These public latrlnes could slt up to 20
Romans ata time, dralnlnc wute in water condult:s befow. Today, most cultures consider trlps to the restroom to be 1. more prlvate
ocaslon. But even when loina ak>ne, our shared sewap lnfrastructure Is one of the most pivota! lnventk>ns In the h!story of
humanlty.

Whlle many anclent rellcl<>us texts contain instructions for kHPiOI waste avny from drinkln¡ water and campsltes, waste
ma~ment toOk a more famUbtr sh~ as early as 3000 BCE. Andtilt Mesopotamlan settlements often had dav structurei made
for squ.ttrna or llttin¡ In the most private room of the house. Th«se were connected to pipes whlch used Nnn~ water to mow
waste lnto 1trfft caMls and cessplts. Water lnfrvtruct\.lre like thls flourished In the Bronze A,e. and In some i>arts of the lndus
Valley, M:Mty Ni!ry h<>UH hld I toilet connected to• cltywlde sewa1e system. Andent Ctetan palKes ewn offered I rrn1nu1I
flush!nc opt.lon.

Resnn;hers un't say fOf cerutn wtlat lm p~ tt\tse n rfy sewte• t ystems, but we do know that waste man11ement Is essenttal
for public healt.h. Untreat ed SiNMl'I Is• brffdmt &'round for ~rou, m1c:roortanlsms, lncludln1 those that CIUM choleni,
dYMntery, and typhold. tt would be teWrll mtllennla before scltntlsts fully ur,derstood the rel1tlonshlp betwetn sewqe •nd
slc-1Mu But me no.loUl odon ot H~• h1ve recorded assoclatlons wlth dlsease 1s earfy as 100 ecr.
And by 100 AD, mote complu ~ nttadon tolutions were emer¡lna. The ROl'Nn Emplre hld contlnuously flowll'II aqueducts
dedica~ to t.-rvtl'll .-w outsio. cttv, watts. Chlnese dynuttes of the iame per1od also had prtvate and pubUc tollets, except

tht,r.,.,te Wti lmmtdiately ~cycled. Most household tollets fed lnto ple stles, and speclallzed excrement colleeton ...u. from
publlc tatrines to sell as fertlllzer. In China, thls tradltlon of waste manapment contlnoed for , en~ .. b4.lt \n Europe the f1H of
the Reman Emplre brouaht publlc sanltatlon lnto the Dari< A,es. Plt latrl™lS cal~ "lools. tiearne eommonplace, 1nd chamber
pots were frequently dumped lnto the street cartas ejected weste from taft wtodows lnto cammunal cessplts. At nlght. so-alled
1onc farmers -would load up the waste before travelll'll beyond cíty llmlts to dump thelr cario.

Europe's unsal'lltary ap.proach perststed for ~ rrturte_s, bllt tollets themsetves underwent some maJor chan¡es. By the late Middle
A¡es. most wulthy fami~s hnd eommode stools- wooden bc»les wltt\ seats and llds. And In the royal court of Entland, the were
control!ed by tlw Groom of the Stool. In addltíon to monltorlna the kin1's Intestinal he•lth. the Groom's.. .. lntimate relatlonshlp
w!th the monarch made hlm a surprlsinaly influentJal flaure .

The next major In toilet technolQIIY came ln 1596, when Sir John Harrin¡ton deslaned the flrst modern flush toilet f°' Queen
Eltzabeth.. lts use of levers to relea.se water and • v.ilve to draln the bowl stlll lnform modem desl1ns. But Hamn,ton's inve ntion
stank of s:ewqe. T~ nkfully, In 1775, SCottlsh inventor Alexander Cummlna 1dded a bend In the dralnplpe to reuln water and
Cmlt odors_ This s0<alled S-tr.ip was ~ter lmproved lnto the modern U-bend by ThOfnas Crapper- tho\lah the term •crap•
predates tl,e Inventor by several centurles.

By the turn of t~ 19".h century, many cltlu had d~loped modem sewqe lnfrastruct ure 1nd wastewater treatment plan~. and
today, to1lets have a wide ranJe of feature_s, from the luxurlous to the sustaínable. But r0U1htv 2 blllton people still doo't have
thelr own toilets at home. And another 2 .2 bllllon don't have facilities that property m1na1e thelr waste, puttlnc ttt~
c.ommun1tles at rlsk of numerous d~eaSH. To sotve ttlls problem. we'II need te lnvent new sanltat!on technoto¡les and address
the behavlofal. flnancial, and polltlcal lssues that produce lnequlty throu1hout the sanitatlon pl~line.