The Indus Civilization c5.51

c5.51

Very long drain channels were sometimes provided at intervals along their length with capacious brick-lined sumps. Occasionally steps were built into the walls of these sumps so that they might be entered more easily, and all of them doubtless had stout wooden covers lying a few inches below the level of the street. An advantage of this system was that blockages in channels leading into, or out of, sumps could easily be cleared by means of rods, and periodical cleaning of this kind was probably carried out by municipal officials, who seem, on the whole, to have done their work well. Little heaps of material, mostly sand, have frequently been found lying alongside drainage channels, which shows that the débris was not always carted away when the drain was cleared.