Sanitation of the Indus Valley Civilisation

The ancient Indus Valley Civilization in the Indian subcontinent (located in present-day eastern-Pakistan and north-India) was prominent in infrastructure, hydraulic engineering, and had many water supply and sanitation devices that are the first known examples of their kind.

Sewage was disposed of through underground drains built with precisely laid bricks, and a sophisticated water management system with numerous reservoirs was established.

The water from bathrooms on the roofs and upper stories was carried through enclosed terracotta pipes or open chutes that emptied into the street drains.

In addition, more than a dozen houses of the acropolis possessed their own internal bathing platform which drained into a covered communal sewer constructed of brickwork held together with a gypsum-based mortar and which emptied into a cesspit outside the town's wall.

[6] A relatively large house in the acropolis had a bathing platform with an attached latrine, that fed into a separate open drain, and discharged into the town's dock.

The Lower town hosts a number of soak pots, large sunken jars with a hole in the bottom, to permit liquids to drain, which were regularly emptied and cleaned.