THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE WATER SUPPLY AND SEWERAGE SYSTEMS IN ST PETERSBURG IN THE 19th CENTURY

Maria Mandrik
Department of Russian Historiography and Source Studies
St Petersburg State University

St Petersburg was founded in 1703 on the banks of the Neva River and became the new capital of the Russian Empire. Having its source in Lake Ladoga, the Neva is only 75 km long, and almost half of it runs through the city. The Neva's pure deep river and many small springs created favourable preconditions for the development of St Petersburg.

WATER SUPPLY SYSTEM

Early water supply

The Neva and its tributaries provided drinking water for the residents of St Petersburg. The first artificial water supply facility was the Ligovsky Channel, which was constructed in 1725 to supply the Summer Palace of Peter the Great with spring water. The channel, 27 km long, took water from the Dudergofsky Springs. Guard were posted along the channel to see to it that the water remained untouched and to prevent its pollution. Nevertheless, the city's inhabitants continued to take water from the Neva and other rivers with their buckets until the early 19th century. When the city area expanded, water was transported by special carriages to the suburbs. The water could be brought right to the house for a payment of 3-5 roubles per month, but that sum was too expensive for most people[1].

In 1826 Maikov, an expert craftsman, constructed the first unit to supply water by manual pumps. In the following year he built another pump-house, not far from the Winter Palace. Until the 1860s it was the only pump-house to deliver water from the Neva to the central parts of the city[2]. In 1841 two pump-houses were built on Vasilyevsky Island[3]. In 1846 an attempt was made to build a water system in the central parts of the city, but the undertaking proved unprofitable and was soon closed down.

The role of the authorities

Originally the water supply and sewage systems were under the authority of the Imperial Cabinets. Later they were taken over by the Ministry of Domestic Affairs and subsequently by the Ministry of Communications. From 1865 onwards authority was given to the municipality and later, by the City Administration order of 1870, to the Municipal Government. As the capital of the empire, St Petersburg enjoyed a privileged position, and the most important questions were decided at the highest level, sometimes by the emperor himself.

The question of building a water supply system was taken under consideration when the municipal and imperial authorities recognised that the channels were getting dirtier and the water could not be used for drinking or household purposes. In February 1838, by order of the emperor, a Water Supply Society was founded in St Petersburg with a capital of 6.75 million roubles[4]. A scientific committee was formed to help the Society in solving problems concerning the city's water supply system and the related technical and practical questions[5]. The project for a water supply system presented by the Society was approved by the committee, calling for the construction of 110 km of water pipes. The location for the water reservoir was chosen by the committee to be near the Smolny Monastery, where the Neva River is deep and runs rather fast. The initial capital needed was 6.75 million roubles. The planned capacity was three million pails of water a day, or eight pails per citizen, one pail costing 3/8 of a kopeck. The average consumption was three pails in St Petersburg, while, for example, in London it was six pails, in Liverpool two pails, and in Manchester five (in the whole of England the average consumption was five pails)[6]. But the committee's work and the fully-developed project were ignored and the Water Supply Society was dissolved because it was considered to have failed to provide a water supply system in the city.

In 1846 the General Municipal Duma (Administrative Duma and General Duma) was organised and made responsible for the city's economy[7]. A "Discussion Committee of City Water Supply System" was appointed by the General Duma. This Committee worked on plans for a new water supply system[8].

The appointed committees did not produce any results and the water supply in the city was getting worse year by year. The water in the Neva River and in the channels became so overloaded with waste that it was necessary to dredge them. But these measures proved insufficient. Contaminated water became a major source of disease. By European standards, the annual death rate was not to exceed 23 per thousand, whereas in St Petersburg the death rate was as high as 47 per thousand and, during epidemics, as high as 70 per thousand. Only after several epidemics did the city authorities take more drastic measures to improve the water supply.

The construction of a modern water supply

The Joint Stock St Petersburg Waterworks Company, founded in 1858, began to construct a water pipe network in the city, having promised to complete the building of the system in four years[9,10]. The plan for the central parts was finished in 1858[11]. The design covered the construction of a water supply system with a capacity of 1.4 million pails a day for 400 000 people. The project was approved in March 1859, but the initial capital of 1.2 million roubles turned out to be insufficient. After some changes in the project, the estimated costs rose to 2.5 million roubles.

The construction of the water supply system attracted general attention. Any event, even the most insignificant, attracted public attention, not only because the company had a questionable reputation. The process advanced very slowly and at times not very skillfully. For example, an English open sand filter froze during the first winter and stopped the water flow. The system had to manage without a filter, which was replaced by metal screens that trapped only bigger clumps of dirt. Finally, in November 1863 the first section of the centralised water supply was opened. The water supply system was in all 66 km long. The water was pumped from the Main Water Tower by two steam water pumps (100 horsepower each), producing 164.5 million pails a year. The construction work in the central parts of the city was completed in 1866.

Later there were some conflicts and disagreements between the Joint Stock St Petersburg Waterworks Company and the city government because part of the contract had not been fulfilled. In 1873-1875 the city threatened to take over the waterworks. In 1875, after long and difficult debates, the City Duma decided to let the company maintain their rights if they would meet certain requirements, e.g. to build a new water supply network[12]. The city was prepared to purchase the water supply network in 1890[13].

The city's own attempts

The City Administration did not rely solely on the company, but attempted to contribute by building several pump-houses to supply the people with Neva water, free of charge. Soon some of the pump-houses were closed and others needed to be repaired[14]. Later the City Duma appointed an executive commission to carry out the repairs[15].

Another problem was caused by sewage running down from the river banks and contaminating the river water. It was under such conditions that the water was taken from channels and other rivers and distributed in water wagons for the price of water from the Neva. In order to stop this abuse, the General Duma ordered in 1862 that the barrels had to be painted different colours according to the place from where the water had been taken. The barrels containing water from the Neva had to be painted white[16].

Expansion of the water supply system

By the 1870s the central parts of the city were provided with water by the water supply system, while people on the right bank of the Neva still lacked one. The main problem was river pollution, because the Neva reached Vasilyevsky Island only after having received all of the wastewater from the central parts of the city.

In 1873 the city administration signed a contract with several independent businessmen who conveyed their rights and obligations to the Company of New Waterworks in St Petersburg, founded in England[17].

In 1877-1879 three waterworks without any treatment facilities were built and 36 km of pipes laid[18]. By 1889 the length of pipelines on Vasiliyevsky Island reached 54 km, in the Vyborgsky section 10 km and in the Peterburgskaya section 38 km[19].

Introduction of water treatment

Although the length of the water supply network grew rapidly, the water supply situation in St Petersburg remained critical. Due to population growth and industrial development, the pollution of the Neva River increased.

The mayor of St Petersburg was deeply concerned about the situation, and in June 1883 he summoned a joint meeting of the city council, the commission for water supply and the board of the waterworks. A proposal was made to construct filters and lengthen the water intake pipes. The waterworks company refused to pay the expenses. However, in 1886 it was obliged to build a slow English sand filter and lengthen the receiving pipes within four years. The project was approved at the end of 1886[20]. The work was completed according to the design of sand filters built in Berlin. Sand and pebbles were used to filter the water[21]. The first filters began to operate in 1887. A bacteriological analysis was carried out and the water was sufficiently clean to pass foreign water quality standards[22]. All filters were in operation in 1890. The capacity of the system was 571 000 litres of water in 24 hours. The total estimated costs of the filtration facilities came to 1.5 million roubles.

Municipal waterworks

In 1891 and 1892 the administration of the water supply operations on the left and right banks of the Neva was transferred to the City Duma[23]. However, the water management still functioned improperly: the filters did not operate properly, the water supply network did not cover all parts of the city and the city could not guarantee that the water was clean. In order to find a solution to these problems, the St Petersburg Main Executive Commission on Water Supply was founded. In 1897 new filters were installed and in 1898-1900 some of the older ones reconstructed, and the water network was extended. By the end of the 19th century alternative water sources were sought, such as springs and water from Lake Ladoga[24]. Later, the City Duma approved the design of a Ladoga water supply system, but it was never carried out.

In the first years of the 20th century it became obvious that the filters were not large enough to supply the growing population with clean water. It was decided to use water taken directly from the Neva, in addition to the filtered water. However, the pump-house was closed down due to the pollution of the river water[25].

In 1908, the defectiveness of the water supply system of the city was one of the main causes of a cholera epidemic that lasted for two years. The epidemic provided the incentive needed for the improvement of the drinking water quality. It was understood that the disinfection of drinking water was necessary. Experiments were carried out to disinfect the water with ozone in 1909-1910. In the Petrogradskaya section ozone filters were constructed in 1911. Chlorination was introduced in the Central Station in 1913. Meanwhile only the Vyborgskaya section was supplied with unfiltered and undisinfected water[26].

In 1914 the water stations of St Petersburg provided a total of 23 million pails a day, almost 12 pails per person[27]. Water was cheap (6 kopecks for 100 pails) and abundant, compared with other European capitals. By 1913 only 219 out of 900 Russian towns had constructed a water supply network[28]. By 1927 in all 307 cities had a water supply system, but the majority of these had no filters.

SEWERAGE SYSTEM

Early drainage system

Adverse topography and frequent flooding made it difficult to construct a sewerage system in St Petersburg. Peter the Great paid special attention to these problems. During his reign underground pipes for water collection were laid in some areas and the planning of the drainage system was started. In 1764 Catherine the Great ordered the construction of a channel (at least 2 metres deep and about 9 m wide). It was to be connected with the mouth of the Moika River in order to clean and deepen it and to make it suitable for sailing. The construction work was finished in the 1790s[29]. Catherine also ordered underground brick channels to be constructed under the main streets to lead rainwater into the Neva. This was the beginning of the sewerage system of St Petersburg (in the 18th and 19th centuries in Russia the term "sewerage system" was usually understood as a system of underground channels for rainwater removal). The channel network grew steadily and in 1832 its total length reached 95 km. Yards were connected to the channels via wooden pipes, but later these were replaced by cast-iron pipes.

In the mid-19th century in Russia, sewerage systems were considered a luxury. Only four cities in the empire, Warsaw, Odessa, Kiev and Yalta had been able to afford one.

St Petersburg faced heavy pollution of its channels and rivers by the mid-19th century. It was especially noticeable in summertime, when one could not walk along the embankment because of the awful stench. Increasing payments for waste removal caused illegal connections of cesspits into rain water drainage pipes. In 1857 house owners were prohibited to discharge sewage via the pipelines[30]. In addition the property owners were asked to clean the pipes more often because they were indispensable for the introduction of water closets, which were about to become very fashionable in the capital.

The construction of the water closets created a new set of problems. After considering the sewerage systems in English cities the City Duma came to a very disappointing conclusion: a proposal was put forward to create a new type of water closet which would not need pipes to discharge the sewage.

Waste disposal

The house owners were obliged to keep solid waste and part of the liquid waste in their cesspits[31]. In the beginning of the 1870s there were nearly 15 000 cesspits[32]. Ten years later the number of cesspits was already almost 19 000[33]. In addition to sewage-disposal wagons, barges were used for the transportation of the sewage. The waste was usually dumped into the Gulf of Finland, near Kotlin Island.

In the early 1890s ten municipal and 70 peasant barges were removing solid waste from the city. Such a small "sanitation fleet" could not cope with the annually growing amount of waste. In the mid-1890s human waste alone amounted to 336 000 tons a year, which was estimated to be only 5 per cent of the total amount of municipal waste.

In the beginning of the 20th century the majority of houses were served by peasants. House owners preferred to employ peasants because this was cheaper, and if the cesspit had not been cleaned and disinfected for a long time the peasants worked for free and even paid extra for the "good product" that could be used as an excellent fertiliser for the infertile soil of the St Petersburg region. Peasants took sewage to their fields, located mostly farther up the Neva River. Sometimes after the rains and spring floods, the waste was returned back to the city by the river.

The city generated various sorts of waste: grey water from kitchens, laundries, and bathing houses, as well as household garbage, street litter and animal waste. Waste was taken to the fields for fertiliser and wastewater ran down via sewer pipes into channels and the Neva River. In addition, there were more than 400 industrial and trade enterprises in the capital at the end of the 19th century. All of them not only used water but also discharged their wastewater into the Neva River and channels without any treatment. The Obvodny Channel and the Moika, Ligovka and Tarakanovka rivers were especially polluted. A suggestion was made to fill the polluted channels and small rivers, but only the Tarakanovka, which was simply called a cesspool, was filled.

Developing a sewerage system

In the 1860s St Petersburg entered a new phase in the development of its sewerage system. This phase was characterised by numerous projects, commissions and hopes, all of which came to naught. The engineer G. Burov even tested one project in some parts of the city. The project was supposed to test the purification of wastewater with help of an English "ABC" system and utilise the sludge as good fertiliser. M. Popov, also an engineer, especially protested against Burov's system, as he himself had proposed a plan for sewage removal. Each tried to prove the advantages of his own system and win both the specialists and the press to his side. Both projects were based on Western know-how. At that time Europe was debating the possibility of using human waste for fertiliser. Nevertheless, in St Petersburg it was decided that the wastewater had to be purified, whether the sludge was to be used for fertiliser or to be dumped into the Gulf of Finland[34].

An English engineer, William Lindley, who had designed the sewerage systems in Hamburg, Frankfurt am Main and other European cities, was employed to make a detailed plan of the sewerage system. Lindley submitted a plan, but neither the Commission nor the City Duma accepted the project. The main difficulty was the lack of money: the project was estimated to cost ten million roubles.

In the late 1870s the sewerage system consisted of hundreds of separate pipes which were neither continuous nor at the correct angle of incline. Many of them were useless and clogged. By the close of the 19th century the sewers had become obsolete: most of them were rotten, collapsed or clogged. After rains it was common that cellars were flooded with wastewater.

The sewer system remained in poor condition and unattended. In 1918 the number of cesspits had reached 40 000. As there were 1000 sewer outlets in rivers and channels, more than 100 km of the city water passages had turned into open stinking sewers. Seventy per cent of wooden pipes for rainwater and sewage removal were useless. At that time 40 per cent of the whole city area, outskirts and new suburbs had no sewers. The 374 km of wooden pipes and of 163 km of concrete pipes were not sufficient.

Construction of a sewerage system

After the revolutions of 1917, the city authorities began to repair the sewerage system. Wooden sewers were replaced with concrete ones. It was also necessary to extend the network, because between 1918 and 1925 the city area had trebled in area. By 1932 the concrete sewer network length had trebled and the whole network length had doubled.

In 1924-25 a plan for a separate sewerage system was elaborated by N.K.Tchizhov. The implementation of the plan began on Vasilyevsky Island, and by 1932 the construction of main pumping station was completed. The outlet was extended further into the Neva Bay, at the depth of five metres approximately one kilometre off shore. In 1932 the construction of a separate sewer system began in other parts of the city. It was decided to complete the construction in ten years because it was estimated that by 1942 the population of Leningrad would reach four million, and a modern centralised sewer system was regarded as a necessity. Despite the rebuilding of the sewerage systems, the sewers constructed in the 19th and the early of 20th centuries are still in use in St Petersburg.

Endnotes

1. Rossiskii Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii Arhiv (The State Historical Archive of Russia), Fund 1285, Op 4, D 11, L 10.
2. Izvestiy Sankt-Peterburgskoi Gorodskoi Dumy [Reports of St Petersburg City Duma (ISPGD)], 1863, 14: 703.
3. ISPGD, 1884, 4: 188.
4. Ustav Sankt-Peterburgskogo Vodoprovodnogo Obschestva (The Charter of the St Petersburg Water Supply Society), 1838, 8.
5. Vygody, ogidaemye ot upotreblenia kapitalov na ustroistvo v Sankt-Peterburge vodoprovoda, dlia snabgenia Nevskoi vodoi kazennyh i chastnyh domov. (The profits expected from the investments in the construction of a water supply system in St Petersburg to supply water to state institutions and private houses from the River Neva), St Petersburg, 1839, 2.
6. Ibid., 5.
7. ISPGD, 1864, 1: 1
8. Sankt-Peterburgskaya Gorodskaya Obshaya Duma [Public Municipal Duma of St Petersburg (SPGOD)], 1850, 1.
9. Ustav Obschestva Sankt-Peterburgskih Vodoprovodov, (The Charter of Water Supply Society of St Petersburg),1858, 1-2.
10. Ibid., 5.
11. Otchet Petrogradskoi Gorodskoi Obschestvennoi Upravy za 1913 (Gorodskie Vodoprovody), (The report of the Public Board of Petrograd in 1913 on the Municipal Water Supply), Petrograd, 1915, 61.
12. ISPGD, 1875, 15: 1351.
13. Ob izmenenii nekotoryh paragraphov novogo ustava Obshestva Sankt-Peterburgskih Vodoprovodov (Predstavleniye Gorodskoi Upravy ot 14.10.1876), [Concerning the amendment of some paragraphs of the new Charter of the St Petersburg Water Supply Society (submission of the Municipal Board of the 14th of October, 1876)], St Petersburg, 1876, 2.
14. ISPGD, 1864, 4: 189.
15. ISPGD, 1865, 12: 591.
16. ISPGD, 1864, 4: 190.
17. ISPGD, 1875, 2: 207.
18. ISPGD, 1892, 14: 27.
19. ISPGD, 1890, 9: 782-783.
20. Otchet ispolnitelnoi komissii dlia nadzora za vodosnabgeniem stolitzy za 1-i period stroitelnyi period soorugenia gorodckih centralnyh filtrov u vodoprovodnoi bashni. Aprel-Noiabr 1887, (The report of the executive commission for supervision of the capital's water supply during the first phase of the construction of the filters of the central water tower. April - November 1887), St Petersburg, 1887, 6.
21. Otchet ispolnitelnoi komissii dlia nadzora za vodosnabgeniem stolitzy za 3-i period stroitelnyi period soorugenia gorodckih centralnyh filtrov u vodoprovodnoi bashni. Iun - Dekabr, (The report of the executive commission for supervision of the capital's water supply for the third phase of construction of the filters of the central water tower. June-December 1890), St Petersburg, 1890, 16.
22. Otchet ispolnitelnoi komissii dlia nadzora za vodosnabgeniem stolitzy za 1-i period stroitelnyi period soorugenia gorodckih centralnyh filtrov u vodoprovodnoi bashni. Aprel-Noiabr 1887, (The report of the executive commission for supervision of the capital's water supply for the first phase of construction of the filters of the central water tower. April - November 1887), St Petersburg, 1887, 45.
23. Gorodskaya ispolnitelnaia comissia po vodosnabgeniu. Otchet za 1893 (3-i god), (Municipal executive commission on the water supply. The report for the third year), St Petersburg, 1894, 3.
24. Trudy VIII Russkogo Vodoprovodnogo s'ezda v St.-Peterburge, (Proceedings of the 8th Russian Water Congress in St Petersburg), St Petersburg, 1907, 7-8. 1907.)
25. Otchet Petrogradskoi Gorodskoi Obschestvennoi Upravy za 1913 (Gorodskie Vodoprovody), [The report of the Petrograd Public Board in 1913. (Municipal Water Supply)], Petrograd, 1915, 64.
26. Ibid., 65.
27. Otchet Petrogradskoi Gorodskoi Obschestvennoi Upravy za 1914 (Gorodskie Vodoprovody), [The report of the Petrograd Public Board in 1914. (Municipal Water Supply)], Petrograd, 1916, 7.
28. Timonov V.E. Voda - istochnik zhizni i smerti (Water - the source of life and death), Leningrad, 1926, 89.
29. ISPGD, 1872, 8: 539.
30. ISPGD, 1866, 12: 646.
31. Ibid., 655.
32. ISPGD, 1873, 7: 672.
33. ISPGD, 1888, 38: 556.
34. ISPGD, 1873, 7: 675.