A drain is a system of pipes that allows the evacuation of stormwater or other liquids.
Drainage is a term that comes from the French drainage and refers to the action and effect of draining . This verb, in turn, means to ensure the escape of liquids or excessive humidity through pipes, tubes or ditches.
For engineering and urban planning , drainage is the system of interconnected pipes that allows the evacuation of rainwater or other liquids . Sanitary drainage is that which carries liquid waste from homes or industries to treatment plants, where treatment is carried out so that the liquid can be poured into a watercourse and the hydrological cycle continues to develop.
History of drainage
The first drainage systems date back to several millennia BC, although they were above-ground designs, while today underground networks are built.
Only in the 19th century did the French create the first underground system; Since then, more and more European cities in the center of the continent followed in their footsteps, taking advantage of nearby rivers to drain water.
Good drainage is key to avoiding flooding.
Floods and pollution
Storm drainage , for its part, is the system that facilitates the transfer of rainwater so that it can be used. Another of its purposes, perhaps the most important, is to prevent cities from flooding.
A poor drainage system puts a city at risk ; A clear example of the consequences of poor design can be seen in the history of Hurricane Katrina , which hit the North American state of New Orleans in August 2005 , since the flooding that followed said catastrophe took many months to be resolved.
Another danger posed by a drainage system is contamination ; Since there is no strict control of the materials that are constantly discarded in the pipes, it is possible to dump toxic materials that silently threaten the entire population. On the other hand, it is important to note that when the volume of waste is small, the risk is lower. In 1992 , a series of explosions took place in the Mexican city of Guadalajara that spanned more than eight kilometers, claiming many lives, due to a gasoline spill in the sewers.
Myths and legends about drains
It is worth mentioning that within the universe of myths and urban legends , sewers occupy a leading place; For decades, countless encounters have been reported with unknown species or species that should not be in a city, which appeared through house drains or sewers. Without a doubt, the story of the large reptiles in North American pipes is the most popular worldwide; But chilling discoveries have been made in many other parts of the planet.
As often happens in these cases, it is very difficult to distinguish between true stories and those fabricated to generate fear in citizens; Furthermore, not everyone who describes a real experience can give specific details or information about the creature they have seen. It has been shown, however, that the unusual mixing of organic matter that takes place in the sewers has given rise to the birth of species that are not found in other ecosystems, which confirms that it is absolutely possible to see an unusual living being in the sewers. drainage systems; This does not rule out that many times people get confused, as a result of suggestion, and notice life in a simple bundle of waste.
The concept in geology and medicine
A geological drainage , on the other hand, is a network of surface transport of water and sediments that usually permeabilizes the upper layers of a terrain and then constitutes streams.
Finally, the notion of drainage is also used in medicine to refer to the utensil that allows excess fluids, sometimes abnormal, to be extracted from a wound, cavity or abscess.