I have wondered many times how a human would fare if the kidneys dumped urine into the start of the large intestines somewhere about the appendix instead of into a bladder to be sprayed out. I’m assuming water would be reabsorbed and slower to process out, primarily through sweat and evaporation from the lungs, and maybe diarrhea, though it may be that other waste products, such as salts or ureas may be absorbed into the large intestines instead of being ejected, though I have no idea if it would, or if it would be ejected as intended. Do we have any biologists here that could give insight on if combining both waste paths into one would be advisable?
Consider, for a second, what would happen if and when the pressure in the colon exceeded the pressure in the bladder, and a urethra connected the two: fluid in the colon would backfeed into the urinary tract. The kidneys would ultimately be exposed to intestinal flora.
The prevalence of UTIs even with the “air gap” of separate waste streams tells me that this would be an extraordinarily bad idea, at least with our current biology.
If we had evolved in a more arid environment, there might be some advantage, but if we had, we would have a significantly different system to maintain homeostasis: it would have to be significantly more resilient to bacterial contamination than our current system.
Can confirm, there is a condition that removes the air gap causing a pretty much continuous UTI. (Colovesical fistula: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/colovesical-fistula#treatment-and-management)