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Clip description
This clip outlines how clean water becomes polluted once it is used in the home, at workplaces and in factories. It also illustrates the responsibility of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works in disposing of the city’s sewage. A map shows Melbourne’s sewer network, the location of the pumping station at Spotswood and the Metropolitan Farm at Werribee where the sewage is treated. Further footage shows large sewer pipes being connected to the network, the pumping station at Spotswood, a small treatment plant at Kew and the Braeside biological treatment plant.
Curator’s notes
This clip presents information through a combination of explanatory narration, illustrations and maps, details of locations (such as the pumping station and treatment plants) and footage of works being carried out. Beginning in the kitchen sink and ending in one of the treatment plants in Melbourne’s outer suburbs, the film links domestic and industrial water use to the complex network of sewers and treatment plants that channel polluted water out of the city. Sanitation and the City was designed to make the public more aware of the work of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, since the sewer pathways are largely invisible to water users.
