“The more things change, the more they remain the same,” says a pithy adage. Whenever we refer to the Cooum River in Chennai, we invariably associate it with sewage and foul smell. It is interesting, in this context, to see what was said about the Cooum in 1867 after a spell of heavy rain:

“The abundant rain produced such an overflow of the Cooum that the town was completely flooded in many parts and as no sufficiently capacious store reservoirs exist and the upper part of the river is not dammed, the usual course of letting the fresh waters we so much need to escape into the ocean has to be resorted to with the usual effect, viz. that the stream rushed seawards with such rapidity that the upper waters only escaped, leaving the filthy lower stratum and the solid poured therein, at the bottom of the riverbed. And now we have our nostrils once more assailed with the disgusting odours emitted from one of the greatest cloacae of Madras.”

This comment was made in the context of the proposal made by one Captain Tulloch sent from the U.K. specifically to Madras in 1866 at the bidding of none less than Florence Nightingale, “the Lady with the Lamp”, who never visited India but was largely responsible for  Madras getting proper sewerage!

The ‘Dry Latrine’ system then in vogue was one where defecation was done in cemented pits or in buckets from which the solid was removed by human labour in basketloads and whose washings went into the open road storm water drain! When in time it came that people would have to change from the dry latrine to the water closet, it was commended, “Such alteration can only be secured by a stringent law, rendering the committal of nuisances punishable summarily. There may be some such law existing, for what we know, but, if so, it is a dead law….To trust the present Native Police would be to lean on a bruised reed, for it must be notorious to everyone not affected with the obliquity of vision that the Police peons are generally great sinners in this respect and look upon the drains as public urinaries.”

Nevertheless, sewerage system came to Madras in due course. Captain Tulloch made a thorough study of the problem and planned to “lay 6 inch and 9 inch earthware pipes of English manufacture with means of flushing and access to the pipes at intervals of 300 ft. The sewage was to be taken to a central spot northwest of the mint and in the neighbourhood of Korrukkuppet.” William Cornish, the then Physician and Sanitary Commissioner of Madras, had raised several objections to this proposal and Capt. Tulloch had responded to his objections by himself playing the devil’s advocate role and clinically examining his proposal in the light of Cornish’s objections which are detailed below:

Objection 1: There are no perennial rivers to supply the water needed for flushing the closets.

Answer: Abundant rain falls every year but in a limited number of days. If enough storages are provided, then there will be more than enough of water needed for it.

Obj 2: Where will the sewage go?

Ans: It is wrong to divert it to the rivers as done in England, and even in Bombay and Calcutta. It should go to the vast wastelands and fields nearby. Unlike in England, it rains only for a limited number of days here. These farms will thereby get not only water throughout the year but the manure for their crops as well. Such usage was already gaining ground in England too with great benefit. Alternatively, it could be led into the sea.

Obj 3: What about the smell?

Ans: The sewer pipes will be provided with charcoal deodorisers at every 300 ft distance.

Florence Nightingale was largely responsible for Madras getting proper sewerage.

Obj 4: The natives are used to defecate in the squatting position. They will not take well to the sitting position in the new system.

Ans: I will design appropriate closets for defecating in the squatting position. (This is indeed an innovation which seems to have gone unrecognised so far.)

Obj 5: The material used for the sewers are such that the liquid part of it will leak into the earth leaving the solid in the pipe, resulting in blockage in no time.

Ans: I will provide steam pressed bricks set in hydraulic cement and lined throughout with asphalt.

Commenting on the impact on life in Fort St. George made by the “great sewer at the northeast of the Fort”, he said:

“No description can convey to the minds of those who have never lived within the influence of the smell from this sewer, its over-powering offensiveness when the outlet is open.

“It is certainly not pleasant to be awoken in the middle of the night by a frightful sense of suffocation, and a feeling as if there were something unpleasantly thick in the air, and then to have your olfactories assailed with a sickening stench, only to be got rid of by closing the doors and windows, setting the punkah vigorously in action, and freely sprinkling the room with Condy’s or McDougall’s fluid with an after-dash of Rimmel’s Toilet vinegar. And it is equally unpleasant to have a little social gathering terminated by one’s guests suddenly calling for eau-de-cologne, plunging noses into their handkerchiefs and hastily ordering their carriages in order to drive away out of range of the dreadful smell. It is fortunate for the residents of the Fort that the ‘unfavourable winds’ blow only for a few days in the year. Those who have suffered from this outfall sewer can sincerely pity their poor fellow citizens compelled by circumstances to reside in such places as Anderson’s Street and Stringer’s Street where the air is impregnated with the same kind of effluvia only in a less concentrated form.”

Capt. Tulloch, therefore, took the precaution of locating the outfall in Korukkupet because “it would be under the influence of winds which would carry any smell to the town only for a few days in the year.” He also emphasised the point that “every town in India has an interest in this project” for “if it could be proved that the sewerage of towns could be profitably and  safely applied to land in India, an incalculable benefit would be conferred on the whole country.”

While his idea of using the sewage for farming did not seem to have materialised, an alternative system of disposal of excreta was available even then. Called ‘The Poudrette’ or the ‘Earth Closet’, it avoided all use of water and converted the faecal material into manure by depositing it into a drum and adding soil to it after every defecation. This was rejected because of the logistics involved in transporting the manure formed therein from each house to the fields. After the lapse of almost two centuries, this system, now termed the ‘eco-san toilet’ was introduced in a fishing village in Kerala by a Briton again, by name Paul Calvert. This system, which enables the installation of hygienic toilets at very low cost, is very well suited to the rural milieu, as it provides rich manure which can be used by the farmers in their fields. An NGO in Tiruchi, SCOPE, is actively involved in promoting this in rural India and  has made considerable progress.

In this system, two drums are placed side by side with provision of a door for emptying its contents and covered with a floor. Defecation is done in one drum through a hole in the floor and the hole kept covered. Some lime or ash is put into the drum after each use. When one drum is full, the second drum is used. By the time the second drum is full, the faecal matter in the first drum is converted into pleasant smelling manure which is removed through the door provided. No water goes into the drum as the urine is led via a slope on the floor to a soil bed on which water-loving plants like cannas are planted. Washing is done in another hole in the floor and is also led to the same bed. Interestingly, SCOPE has refined the system and has even established how the urine also can be collected and used in the fields as manure. It is stated that the total output of urine from one individual gives enough of urea in a year for an acre of land!

The basic cost of providing the two drums and the floor is very low and privacy above the floor can, depending on the family concerned, vary from a simple thatti to a pucca wall with a tiled floor with the sides also tiled! If indeed the eco-san system is utilised widely in rural areas, it will literally result in a major revolution in rural India: The farmer will not only be producing good quality manure for his fields but his family’s health too will improve a lot and dignity will be conferred on its women.

(Summarised by Dr Indukanth S. Ragade from an article which had appeared in the Madras Journal of Medical Science in 1867 and traced by Dr. A. Raman.)