A specialist Misconnections Investigation Team has discovered dozens of households and business premises across the Southern Water region have been sending their waste directly into surface water drains instead of sewers.
Careless developers and tradespeople can wrongly connect home or workplace waste pipes straight into drains designed for surface water only, instead of wastewater being carried away to wastewater treatment works.
By identifying these 60 properties over the last 12 months with incorrect plumbing, the team has prevented millions of litres of raw sewage from entering our environment this year.
In total, the team found 265 individual issues, involving problem toilets, showers, hand basins, dishwashers, washing machines, baths, and kitchen sinks.
Most of the properties were fixed by their owner after we made them aware, but in some cases Southern Water had to step in to take direct action – particularly when the connection was located off property boundaries.
Over the past year, in Kent, 33 misconnected properties were identified, in Sussex 8, and in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight 19.
Since January 2019, when the team was set up, 224 misconnected properties have been found, with 739 individual problems, including more than 100 offending toilets.
As a result, more than 7 million litres of household waste has been removed from the environment. A single toilet can discharge more than 20,000 litres a year.
Rob Butson, Misconnections Manager at Southern Water, said:
“When the team started work, the only way to track misconnections was by placing cages in drains to look for evidence of toilet paper. But the teams are now issued with electronic ‘Fluidion’ testing devices which measure telltale chemical traces of wrongly connected facilities allowing more to be found and investigations to be quicker.
“Bringing new technology to the task of tracking down these sources of pollution is truly game changing. Each time a connection is rerouted, pollution is instantly cut improving bathing water quality and protecting wildlife and habitats.”
This activity is just one part of Southern Water’s ongoing efforts to enhance and protect the environment. They are investing £2billion between 2020 and 2025 (c.£1,000 per household) to improve their performance, with much of that being spent on their wastewater network. They are committed to reducing pollution by up to 40% this year, and by 80% over the next three years.
