Holló Szilvia Andrea: Budapest's Public Works - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2010)

Developing utilities on doctor's orders

than among those consuming tapwater. Fodor used hard facts to prove that although increasing water consumption leads to increases in the production of wastewater carrying all sorts of pathogens (such as typhoid, cholera and diarrhoea), the incidence of epidemic outbreaks in cities with efficient sewer systems decreased spectacularly. Of course it was not enough to implement the system, proper sewer maintenance and wastewater treatment would also have to be provided.

The municipality wasted no time and handed Bazalgette’s down to a four-member committee. Engineers William Lindley, Ferenc Reitter, Pál Szumrák and József Vogler submitted the proposal to the Board of Public Works from where it was sent back, with Reitter’s modifications, to the newly set up municipality of the capital city in 1873. The three trunk envisaged in Bazalgette’s plan made his proposal discourag- ingly expensive, but Reitter, facing the wrath of the aldermen guarding the city's coffers, embraced the idea himself arguing that"... with a utility whose existence is vital to the future of the city, it is more advisable to accept certain sacrifices than to create something insufficient, something whose future improvement would cost even more, provided that any future improvements can in fact be made." In order to implement professional enhancements, the city would have been obliged to take out a significant loan, but as this was not the case, the project moved forward by small steps at a time, especially on the left bank of the Danube.

I Bazaigette's sewerage plan

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