A bit of history
Wastewater collection in the Municipality of Milan started developing from the second half of the 1800s, along with urban expansion.
The sewerage system was created after long, exhaustive studies comparing the experiences and systems adopted in the major European cities and with the contribution at different times of famous scholars such as engineers Mr Felice Poggi and Mr Antonio Columbo and the Milan Polytechnic professors, Mr Gaudenzio Fantoli and Mr Francesco Bay.
The progressive construction of the sewerage system was conditioned by the land inclination, leading to the urban development in the form of the so-called multilevel system which consisted in a set of concentric and gradually descending rings around the City centre. Each ring was served by its own separate sewer located along its perimeter.
In more recent years a second basin, also equipped with its own separate tanks was formed around the oldest basin located between the Olona riverbed, the streets with the tramway circular line and the railway belt line.
In 2001, the construction of the three Milan treatment plants at San Rocco, Nosedo and Peschiera Borromeo has begun as the implementation of the European Directive 91/271/EEC concerning urban waste water treatment.
The three treatment stations were completed and commissioned between 2003 and 2005.
MM history