It compared the earth to a cesspool.
It looked like a war zone and smelled like a cesspool.
There is a small cesspool, one of which had been closed by the tenants because of the offensive smell.
In the event of a complaint being made to a district council that any drain, closet, privy, ashpit or cesspool is a nuisance or injurious to health, the council may empower their surveyor to enter and examine the premises, and, if the complaint is well founded, they may require the owner to do the necessary works.
People didn't want to spend the money emptying the cesspool and just put a pipe in to run into the nearest dike.