Holló Szilvia Andrea: Budapest's Public Works - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)
Developing utilities on doctor's orders
The regime change, the economic measures taken in its wake, and the establishment of the system of regional self-government left their marks on the history of the waterworks, too: the Capital City Waterworks Co. became one of the foremost public utilities of Hungary. In 1997 one-fourth of the company's shares were acquired by the French Lyonnaise des Eaux and the German RWE Aqua GmbH, and although the Capital City Self-Government retained its position as majority shareholder, operational rights were ceded for the next 25 years to these two professional investors. In recent years it has been primarily in the area of water purity standards that major advances have been made-. Hungary’s largest ultraviolet-based water treatment equipment was installed in Káposztásmegyer, which enabled the operators to reduce the amounts of disinfectant chlorine used. In the internationally-certified laboratories more than 11,000 water samples are tested annually; this is a vitally important procedure as Budapest now relies on water extracted from riverside water bases, whose yield derives from ground water that can be used untreated. Developing utilities on doctor's orders Sanitary and stormwater sewage disposal facilities were already built by the ancient Greeks and Romans. In Athens the drains were carved into stone or else clay pipes were used for the drainage of wastewater, which was then utilised in irrigation. The most famous sewer system built by the Romans was the Cloaca Maxima, which was large enough for a cart to pass through, but in less fashionable districts, sewage continued to trickle down cartwheel tracks. Remains of flush toilets have been found by archaeologists in the public and residential buildings of Aquincum where a system of limestone drains carried the sewage into the Danube. After the downfall of the Roman Empire and in the storm of the great migration of peoples, sewage treatment fell into decline with the carefully-constructed systems going to rack and ruin. Mediaeval towns reeked to high heaven with wastewater and feces that were emptied — after a warning cry if those passing beneath were lucky — from windows into the streets; the sewage then flowed down the open streetside ditches with the seepage contaminating the groundwater. Flies and rats multiplied as contagions swept through the population slaying the citizenry by the tens of thousands. When the connection between the epidemics and the filth was recognised, the dumping of waste into the streets was banned. The townsfolk were obliged to build cesspools made of or at least covered with stone, and in places it was the duty of wandering marketers to carry off the town's refuse in their empty carts. In order to control 65
