Page 46 - FCC-N10-eng

They also told us that at one time “it was ru-
moured that there was one rat per each of
the city’s inhabitants; this is no longer true
thanks to cleaner streets, controlled dum-
ping, and cleaner waste treatment”.
A century of anecdotes and
curiosities in Barcelona’s sewer
system
Literature and flms have made the sewer
network a place that is often more inhospi-
table than it really is.
There are sewers in Paris that have become
literary scenarios thanks to works such Les
Miserables (1862) by Victor Hugo, or The
Phantom of the Opera (1909) by Gaston
Leroux. The sewers of other cities, such as
New York, have been famous for suppo-
sedly sheltering crocodiles and other wild
animals which, in fact, have never existed
there. Some of these stories are true, such
as the more than 3 metre long boa which
escaped from Barcelona’s zoo ten years
ago and sought shelter in the city’s sewer.
In fact, there are endless stories about the
Barcelona sewer network.
The bad reputation of rats
The ferocity of sewer rats is another ur-
ban legend about the city’s underground.
No worker has been bitten by a rat in the
last 100 years, in fact, these rodents fee
as soon as they see a worker at the sewer.
Sewers span over 1630 kilometres
Barcelona’s sewer network currently spans
1,630 kilometres, i.e. the distance between
the city and Berlin; a century ago it was less
than 90 kilometres long.
Lucky parrots
Parrots were used until the late 60s to de-
tect gases or lack of oxygen in the swers..
Each brigade had a cage with a parrot and,
if the parrot showed signs of choking the
workers had to go up to the surface imme-
diately.
Civil war arsenal
A few years ago, a real arsenal from the
Spanish civil war was found in the collector
in Calle del Rec, including grenades, guns,
and rifes. The operators transferred the
arsenal to their work centre and called the
police.
Barcelona’s
sewer network currently
spans 1,630 kilometres, i.e.
the distance between the
city and Berlin; a century
ago it was less than 90
kilometres long.