Getting it right

Sewerage, sewage or sewer?
The facility that treats effluent
is often incorrectly referred to
as a ‘sewerage treatment plant'.
It is, in fact, a ‘sewage'
treatment plant, because
sewage – having passed along
the sewerage system through
sewer pipes – is what the plant
treats. So, sewage is the stuff
(waste matter), sewerage is the
system of drains that carries
the sewage, and the sewers are
the actual pipes.