It's an inescapable fact of life: Everyone produces waste. After all, the food and drink you consume have to go somewhere after your body's done with them. Urinating and defecating are such standard parts of life that we hardly ever think about where our waste products end up after we go about our, er, business. But in many places worldwide, that's where sewer systems come in: a practically invisible mechanism of pipes, drains, and treatment plants that carry our waste away, protect our water supply from contamination, and prevent the spread of dangerous diseases like cholera and typhoid. And it might come as a surprise to many that the idea of constructing this critical waste management infrastructure (or at least, the modern version of it) isn't even two centuries old.

That's not to say

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