Sewers, so convenient for 'flush and forget' - though the effluent pump for the shared septic tank we send our sewage to failed recently and the small sewer lines began to back up within the three houses sharing it. Thankfully we didn't have sewage coming out of the shower drain when flushing the toilet, as our neighbour did, but it is a useful reminder that there is always something that can go wrong. And then during the cold snap last week I came across one of the main sewers for the village (they are on mains sewerage, we are more of an outlier, so no access) spilling onto the allotments, presumably because somewhere in the drain the excreta had begun to slow down and then freeze and then block the entire pipe. Thankfully we now have some warmer weather and its all sorted ..... so, on-site non-sewered sanitation or sewered? Both having problems but I suspect the sewers are going to become ever more important as we begin to recycle used water more systematically in order to protect water resources ..... but the cost of sewerage? Ouch ..... particuarly when there is limited take-up of new connnections.
