Sewers.

下水道

Millions of people can live right next to one another and regularly poop out tons of potential pathogens.

數百萬人比鄰而居，卻能定期排出數以噸計的潛在病原體。

And thanks to the sewer system, all that bad stuff gets safely whisked away and dealt with.

多虧了下水道系統，所有的壞東西都能被安全地帶走和處理。

In places without sewers, those fecal pathogens stick around, making lots of people sick and killing more than half a million people every year.

在沒有下水道的地方，這些糞便中的病原體會殘留下來，使很多人生病，每年有 50 多萬人是以喪生。

So we should definitely build sewers in places that don't already have them, right?

所以，我們肯定應該在還沒有下水道的地方修建下水道，對嗎？

Well actually, no.

事實上，沒有。

Hi, I'm David, and this is MinuteEarth.

大家好，我是大衛，這裡是 MinuteEarth。

As great as sewers are, they do have some crappy qualities.

下水道雖好，但也有一些缺點。

First, because sewer lines are prone to breaking when it gets super cold or super stormy or super busy, in order to be effective, they have to be buried super deep underground, and that makes them super expensive to build and maintain.

首先，由於下水管道在超冷、超強暴風雨或超忙的天氣下容易斷裂，是以為了保證其有效性，必須將其埋在地下超深的地方，這就使得其建設和維護成本超高。

Number two, sewer systems work by flushing poops away, but that requires a lot of water, as much as 100 liters per person per day.

第二，下水道系統的工作原理是將大便沖走，但這需要大量的水，每人每天多達 100 升。

And finally, to be useful, sewers must send those poops through a treatment plant that can reliably destroy pathogens.

最後，下水道要發揮作用，就必須將這些糞便送入能夠可靠地消滅病原體的處理廠。

And there are a lot of places out there where these downsides—costs, water requirements, and pathogen treatment—are total deal-breakers.

而在很多地方，成本、用水要求和病原體處理等這些不利因素都會讓人望而卻步。

Places that don't have the money to install and maintain pricey sewers, dry and drought-prone places without enough water for flushing, and monsoony places where floods can overwhelm treatment plants, sending plumes of poop into local waterways.

沒有錢安裝和維護價格昂貴的下水道的地方，沒有足夠水沖洗的乾旱地區，以及洪水會淹沒汙水處理廠，將大便排入當地水道的季風區。

Most of the 2.5 billion people that don't already have access to sewers live in places like these, where sewers don't actually make sense.

目前還沒有下水道的 25 億人中，大部分都生活在這樣的地方，下水道在這些地方並沒有實際意義。

So is there a better option for dealing with poop in these places?

那麼，有沒有更好的辦法來處理這些地方的大便呢？

Well, look at what happened in places without other utilities.

那麼，看看在沒有其他公用設施的地方發生了什麼。

Instead of needing to build big connected power grids and big connected phone grids, we now have the capacities to give people power without power lines, and phone service without phone lines.

我們現在不再需要建設大型聯網電網和大型聯網電話電網，而是有能力在沒有電線的情況下為人們提供電力，在沒有電話線的情況下為人們提供電話服務。

Why not sewage service without sewage lines?

為什麼沒有汙水管道就不能提供汙水處理服務？

There are already a few poop management options that don't require sewer lines, like septic tanks and pit latrines.

目前已經有一些不需要下水管道的便便處理方法，如化糞池和坑廁。

But none of these alternatives actually kill the pathogens in poop, which means that if we put them to widespread use, especially in more populated places, they need to be emptied often, exposing people to nasty stuff.

但這些替代品都不能真正殺死大便中的病原體，這意味著如果我們廣泛使用這些替代品，尤其是在人口較多的地方，就需要經常清空它們，使人們接觸到噁心的東西。

Ideally, we'd have an option that is relatively cheap, doesn't use too much water, and destroys pathogens on site.

理想的情況是，我們能找到一種相對便宜、用水量不大、能在現場消滅病原體的方案。

And there are some good ideas out there, like this solar toilet that concentrates the sun's rays to burn poops into harmless charcoal.

現在也有一些好主意，比如這個太陽能馬桶，它能將太陽光集中起來，把大便燒成無害的木炭。

There's this vacuum toilet that pressure cooks poops into harmless little cakes.

有一種真空馬桶能把大便壓成無害的小餅。

And this steam toilet, which boils poops into harmless piles of sludge.

還有這種蒸汽廁所，它能把大便煮成無害的汙泥堆。

As an added benefit, once it's processed, the poop can often be used as fertilizer or fuel.

還有一個好處是，糞便經過處理後，通常可以用作肥料或燃料。

These clever crappers aren't quite ready for primetime yet, but eventually we may be living in a world with fewer sewers to whisk away our poops, and more toilets that can transform them into something turdily awesome.

這些聰明的便器還沒有準備好進入黃金時段，但最終我們可能會生活在一個下水道越來越少，而廁所越來越多的世界裡。

This video was made in partnership with Bill Gates.

這段視頻是與比爾-蓋茨合作製作的。

To learn more about how we can improve the lives and health of people around the world, and make safe sanitation accessible to everyone, visit GatesNotes.com.

欲瞭解更多有關我們如何改善全世界人民的生活和健康，以及如何讓每個人都能享受到安全衛生的資訊，請訪問 GatesNotes.com。

Thanks Bill!

謝謝你，比爾！