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

Developing utilities on doctor's orders

■ The collapsed Devil's Ditch in Attila utca, Vasárnapi Újság (The Sunday News),

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isation of the areas inside the line of Hungária körút the ways of moving forward had to be rethought in light of the increased tasks to be carried out. Eventually the decision was taken that three independent organisations be commissioned with the installation job as well as the operation of the trunk mains and discharge facilities.

Slowly but surely the work of Pest’s canalisation was thus nearing completion. But what about the other side of the Danube? As Bazalgette's plans had made no provisions for Buda, credit was undoubtedly due to Ferenc Reitter for making it possible that the construction of Buda’s sewer system could be undertaken. The work of covering the lower-lying sections of the Devil’s Ditch (Ördög-árok), the brook which functioned as a natural sewer main, was started in 1873. It was a major setback when the already completed section caved in after a disastrous downpour inundating the city on 26 June 1875. "Builders had been at work for years on the redirection and covering of the stream for years at the sluggish rate and with the uncertainty of purpose all too Ijamiliar in these parts.” Work was nevertheless completed in another two years. Later Ottó Martin set the direction of the trunk main to be laid toward the (by now extinct) Fehér Sas tér in the Tabán district because the higher level of the bottom of Devil’s Ditch there made it possible for the sewer to be installed

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