Sewerage and Drainage System

What is a Sewerage?
• Sewerage is the infrastructure that conveys sewage or surface runoff
(stormwater, meltwater, rainwater) using sewers. It encompasses
components such as receiving drains, manholes, pumping stations,
storm overflows, and screening chambers of the combined sewer or
sanitary sewer. Sewerage ends at the entry to a sewage treatment
plant or at the point of discharge into the environment. It is the
system of pipes, chambers, manholes, etc. that conveys the sewage
or storm water.
• It is also an alternate noun for the word sewage
Types
• Combined sewer-a sewage collection system of pipes and tunnels
designed to simultaneously collect surface runoff and sewage water
in a shared system.
During dry weather (and small
storms), all flows are handled by
the publicly owned treatment
works (POTW). During large
storms, the relief structure allows
some of the combined stormwater
and sewage to be discharged
untreated to an adjacent water
body.
Types
• Simplified sewerage-a sewer system that collects all household
wastewater (blackwater and greywater) in small-diameter pipes laid
at fairly flat gradients.

Schematic of a simplified sewer:

Smaller diameter pipes are laid at
a shallower depth and at a flatter
gradient than for conventional
sewers
Types
• Storm Drain-is infrastructure designed to drain excess rain and
ground water from impervious surfaces such as paved streets, car
parks, parking lots, footpaths, sidewalks, and roofs. Storm drains vary
in design from small residential dry wells to large municipal systems.
Storm drain with its pipe visible
beneath it due to construction
work
Drainage System
• A system of watercourses or drains for the removal or carrying off
excess water either from the ground surface or from the rootzone is
known as the drainage system. In geomorphology, drainage system is
seen as the pattern formed by the lakes, streams and rivers in a
particular drainage basin. In general, drainage system denotes man
made system of drainage. A suitable, good drainage system is
important because, if there is no proper drainage system water does
not run off, instead it becomes standing water that will smell and
allows mosquito breeding.
Sewage vs Drainage
• Generally, drainage system is used to run off the excess water to sea
or reservoirs or any other suitable place, while sewage system is used
to carry out the waste water and solids to dispose them in a proper
way. Simply, sewage system is a drainage system for carrying waste
water.
• Drainage system either be manmade system or natural system (in
case of rivers and lakes), while sewage system is often manmade
system.
• Sewers are designed to carry solid waste also, while drainage is
designed to carry excess water.
• Drainage can be open to air, but sewage can’t be open to air.