A comparison of Water and Waste Management by Ancient Romans and Ancient Greeks

A comparison of Water and Waste Management by Ancient Romans and Ancient Greeks
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Ancient Rome is known for its water and wastewater systems. The water system in ancient Rome offered regular supply to areas that were centrally located. This is in contrast to the modern systems where water is delivered on demand to specific individual connections. Access water points for both water and wastes were located outdoors, some meters away from residential areas. Owing to the lack of individual connections, majority of Romans had to spend a lot of time outdoors in the shops, vibrant cities, baths, streets and latrines. Initially, Romans had depended on river Tiber, shallow wells and local springs for their drinking water. However, these sources became highly polluted and insufficient for the city’s rising population. This necessity resulted into the development of the aqueduct technology. Providing sufficient supply of water in Rome required regular vigil by residents and other officials elected by the residents ( HYPERLINK "/Ivan-Illich/e/B000APUQZY/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" Illich, 2000, 13).
Similar to ancient Rome, evolution of the urban water management systems in ancient Greek resulted into notable developments, not only on the mainland Greek, but also on the islands. Some of these developments included implementation of hygienic living standards, construction for sediment or flood control, as well as sustainable urban water systems. The period of oligarchic period were characterized by construction of large-scale hydraulic projects that were aimed at producing enough quantity of water for domestic and industrial use (35).
In contrast to Rome, ancient Greek was characterized by low population density. This was coupled with the fact of low exploitation of natural resources. The most common waste products from these ancient times were hum...