New Year, New Blockages!
11 January 2024 16:09
NI Water wants to encourage the public to make a New Years resolution - stop flushing inappropriate items!
Christmas is over, but that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t some left over damage! With almost a 20% increase in sewer blockages in December compared to other months, NI Water has a lot of extra work to start off the New Year. A large proportion of these blockages are due to inappropriate items being flushed such as wet wipes and sanitary items, along with Fats, Oils and Greases.
NI Water’s Head of Environmental Regulation Angela Halpenny explains, “NI Water is constantly unblocking sewers, however most of this can be easily prevented. The main cause of blocked sewers and out of sewer flooding is the flushing of inappropriate items such as wipes and sanitary products. These form together into a ball of ‘rags’ causing blockages and out of sewer flooding. Blockages are completely avoidable if everyone adopts a simple habit of binning everything other than the three P’s - Pee, Poo and Paper. We could be putting our resources to better use, especially as these operational issues can all be avoided by only flushing the 3 Ps.”
Angela concludes: “We have all seen the awful effects of an overflowing manhole in the street or worse, an overflowing toilet in a home. There are more than 1,000 wastewater treatment works across Northern Ireland treating around 320 million litres of wastewater each day. The vast majority - 93% - of sewer blockages are caused by wet wipes. In the last ten years, we have spent over £1.5 billion investing in water and wastewater infrastructure, but no amount of investment will completely stop blocked pipes if people continue to flush wipes and sanitary items down the toilet and pouring fats, oils and grease down the sink.”
If you want to help NI Water out this year check out the bathroom checklist of ‘never flush’ items below:
- all wipes (baby, personal cleansing, toilet and household cleaning)
- sanitary items (sanitary towels, tampons, liners, applicators and backing strips)
- cotton wool, disposable nappies and nappy liners
- condoms, incontinence pads, colostomy bags, used bandages and contact lenses.
www.niwater.com/bag-it-and-bin-it/ for further information.
You can view first-hand the damage FOG can cause to our sewers by viewing the following video https://www.niwater.com/FOG
ENDS
Notes to editors:
When checking your home is winterproof, why not take the time to check the age of your water supply pipes. For information about how you can find and deal with lead pipes please visit: www.niwater.com/lead-pipes
Media enquiries to the NI Water Press Office via email to press.office@niwater.com