Dont treat your toilet like a bin says council

 

Recent blockages are a timely reminder to be careful what you put down the sink and toilet. Maintenance engineers have discovered recently a number of items that have been flushed, either accidentally or on purpose, that have resulted in blockages to sewage grinder pumps. 

Single use sanitary items, including wet wipes and baby wipes, are not to be flushed down the sewerage network. They can cause considerable, costly damage and cause sewer overflows which nobody wants. 

One of the biggest culprits is wipes. Although some wipes are labelled as flushable, they are not biodegradable and should not enter the sewer system. Wet wipes down the toilet are one of the biggest causes of blockages at the expense of ratepayers.

Often ‘fatbergs’ form, which is where fat and grease that’s gone down the sink get rolled up and picked up by wipes in the network. People can help prevent this from happening by ensuring fat, oil, grease and other non-flushable items do not go down sinks and toilets. The non-flushable items stick to the fat and help the fatberg get bigger.

Oils and fats should be wiped out of pans and disposed of in the rubbish.

Cities all around the world are facing increased pressure on their sewage networks due to fatbergs. Last year a 250 metre long, 130 tonne mass dubbed the ‘Whitechapel fatberg’ was found in London’s underground sewer system.

As we move into the holiday season, and guests and visitors flock to Mangawhai, it’s important that your guests are aware if you have a grinder pump on your property or if you are connected to one that they are aware of what it all entails.

Let’s all give the team who have to deal with this a Christmas off and ensure our guests understand that your toilet, and the Mangawhai sewer network, is not a tip.