'[R]emember that a place like Dubai really emerged in the last 50 years. It was a sleepy, you know, Bedouin town half a century ago. And what you do is when you bring in the world’s, you know, most sophisticated architects and engineers, you can literally build anything, including a building of 140 or 150 stories. But designing a municipal network of sewage treatment is in some ways more complex. - KATE ASCHER — Boing Boing
Terry Gross recently interviewed Kate Ascher about her skyscraper book, and ended up discussing the common lack of sewage connections in Dubai - including the Burj Khalifa. So they end up using trucks to cart the sewage to the central treatment plant, where they often end up queuing for 24-hours or more before they can be emptied.
Gizmodo calculated:
'The Burj Khalifa has 163 habitable floors. It's designed to hold 35,000 people at any given time. Now, humans produce 100 to 250 grams (3 to 8 ounces) of feces per day. Let's say 200 in this case, since these people are well fed. That's 7,000,000 grams per day. Seven tonnes of poop per day. Now, add human-produced liquids (pee, bathing, cleaning their teeth...) and the water to push the poop down its miles of sewage pipes. I think a very conservative total would be 15 tonnes of sewage per day.
That's a lot of poop.'
2 Comments
don't you find this a disgusting position that none of the thousands of the western architects and engineers who buzzed around Dubai like blood sucking flies have not voiced any of this then, and now, the neo liberal press picks up on it like the righteous environmental issue of the "industry?" the news bit itself and some of the commentary making fun of it in the boing site is even more irritating than the shit itself.
Orhan, you are spot on. I was lectured by one of the principals at SOM about "how young people these days are just after the money, while they (SOM) are responsible for the advancement of the profession". I did not have the heart/balls to ask him about this monstrosity, but I wish that I had done so.
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