Man put sewer water in a jar for a few weeks and was shocked at what appeared
Most of us don't fancy going anywhere near sewage water and it's easy to see why, considering how it looks after it's left in a jar for a few weeks.
We probably all had similar science experiments at school where we would study local ecosystems and it turns out that some folks have turned it into an adult hobby, where they attempt to grow their own.
Content creator Nestor, AKA HabitatForge, has a huge passion for creating his own mini-ecosystems or terrariums, and he shares his often eye-opening results on YouTube, previously exposing what happens when dirt and water is left alone in a jar for six months.
It took just a few weeks for an ecosystem to develop when he recently collected some sewage water for one of his latest experiments, but even with his experience, Nestor was still 'speechless' at what he discovered.
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If anything highlights just how important clean drinking water can be, it's this video, as after just a short while of being contained in a jar, the sand, plants, and wastewater that he collected from an urban drain had turned into a 'tiny living aquarium'.
In an environment such as this, freshwater species will find it impossible to thrive, but other creatures known for surviving in extreme conditions soon appeared in Nestor's jar.
His YouTube video showed that the likes of Physa snails, planarians, Tubifex worms, ostracods, copepods, and other micro-invertebrates all appeared.
The mini-ecosystem also saw algae and plants create the oxygen exchange that keeps this jar alive on its own, while small predators help maintain the balance of the system, emphasising how resilient nature can be, even in extreme conditions such as these.
Although it prompted an undoubtedly interesting experiment, the video can also be a reminder of a hot topic in the UK regarding water that continues to be polluted through sewage.
Thames Water was fined £122.7 million in the biggest ever penalty last year, with the BBC exposing that the company was responsible for polluting the River Thames with at least 72 billion litres of sewage between 2020 and 2023.
A new Channel 4 drama, called Dirty Business, also takes a closer look at 'one of the biggest potential corporate scandals in British history', with the health risks of being near polluted water extremely high, as one woman contracted e-coli after swimming in the sea near sewage back in 2023.
Drinking sewage water would also be a terrible idea, as although you're unlikely to develop a mini-ecosystem in your own stomach, you are likely to develop a serious illness such as e-coli, Salmonella or Hepatitis A.
The pathogens inside the contaminated water may well be familiar to the human body in some cases but some can cause serious infections, so you should avoid going near it where possible, let alone consuming any.
James Moorhouse