Please, regional South Australia – only flush the three Ps!

To help keep costs down for all of us and avoid the awful experience of sewage overflows, SA Water is asking its regional customers to be mindful of what they put down the toilet or drain.

Over recent years, weird, gross and unwanted items going into our regional sewer networks have resulted in more than 500 blockages.

SA Water’s Senior Manager of Production and Treatment Lisa Hannant said the advice however is the same, regardless of the statistics or where you live.

“Our message is simple – if it’s not paper, pee or poo (the three Ps), don’t flush it down the loo,” Lisa said.

“The most common and problematic things we have to remove are wet wipes, pads, tampons and condoms, as well as fats and oils coming down kitchen drains.

“Unlike toilet paper, wet wipes don’t break down in water. Wads of them can build up behind another foreign object in the pipe, such as tree roots, or get stuck in congealed fats and oils to form a blockage or ‘choke’.

“Chokes can occur in our mains or your internal plumbing, and more often than not result in everything in the pipe breaking out into the environment or unfortunately coming back up through your toilet or drain.

“This then requires a plumber or one of our crews to clean up the mess, which is a cost and inconvenience that could have been avoided by only flushing the three Ps.

“We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year removing items from our sewer networks which don’t belong there and taking them to landfill.”

For SA Water, items that have become stuck in the sewer pipes are only half the challenge – some objects can make it all the way to the wastewater treatment plants.

“We’ve seen it all – false teeth, rubber chickens, car tyres, Lego blocks, a shredded mattress, sprinkler heads, blocks of wood, drivers’ licences, underwear and even golf balls!” Lisa said.

SA Water manages sewer networks and wastewater treatment plants in the Far North, Fleurieu Peninsula, Lower Eyre Peninsula, Murraylands, South East regions and Upper Spencer Gulf.

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