Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Misconnected pipes cause millions of litres of sewage to flow into our rivers daily
Not so long ago the issue of misconnected pipes on the Ladder was raised in a forum thread.
The problem is that waste water, that should be going to sewers, is being routed off with the surface water to local rivers and causing bad damage to wildlife habitats.
Our local river, the Lee, is one that is affected by this problem with levels of faecal e-coli bacteria in the River Lee found to be more than 80 times the recommended level.
Currently, local councils are responsible for making sure homeowners fix the problem, while water companies and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are accountable for tackling the pollution.
However, Thames Water want a change in the law to allow it to have powers to ensure households comply, as it believes not enough is being done to rectify the problem.
The government have responded by saying that it has examined empowering water companies to enforce changes to plumbing within households.
But it has not recommended extra legislation to effectively permit them to bring prosecutions if homeowners do not comply is currently needed.
Instead, it has made a commitment to work “with the general public on such matters as misconnections to the sewerage system and disposal of fats, to raise awareness and encourage action”.
Is this enough? Or should water companies be given the power to prosecute those who do not sort misconnected pipes out in their houses?
Read More: Four million litres of sewage flow in to Thames EVERY day
Tags for Forum Posts: misconnected drains, pollution, thames water
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
-
It's long seemed to me that there must be some simple and fairly straightforward ways to speed up this process. Here's one idea, which people with more legal and technical expertise than mine are welcome to criticise.
It should be mandatory for property owners to ensure that their sewage and "grey" water pipes are properly connected. And, as a first stage, the various UK Governments could apply this to all transfers of property after a fixed date. So in order to pass title to a new owner, it would be compulsory to provide some standard evidence that outlets have been inspected and are properly plumbed. No inspection and proper certificate; no title.
As more properties are bought and sold, and covered by the required certificates, the legislation could be extended to more properties with the requirement then applied e.g. to building insurance .
At the same time I'd like to see a parallel public education programme explaining and persuading householders and other property owners that they have some responsibility for stewardship of the world beyond their boundary fences. And that if we want "nature" which isn't just in zoos and aquariums we have to think - as Jared Diamond observed in the Netherlands - that we really are all in the same polder.
Of course, it isn't all about household sewage going down the wrong pipes. I was amazed this issue wasn't raised far more before the Olympics. Maybe there was some temporary reduction in the amount of shit pumped into the River Lee by sewage works. Or maybe the athletes and Olympic officials just didn't spend enough time by the water to sniff the niff.
And of course, other pollutants get emptied into surface drains or are run off from roadways. Many thanks to whoever introduced me to Natalie Jeremijenko's New York fire hydrant gardens. (It may have been you, Liz.)
In Vancouver eight years ago Zena and I saw fish stencils on surface drains. We suggested this should be trialled in Haringey. Well ... But I was pleased to read that North Tyneside have this scheme.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
-
Permalink Reply by Joe Bailey on
-
We had ours checked and were happy all was correct, however one might forgive "offenders"; when we queried with Thames Water about 10 years ago following a little rejiggering of external pipes, they said there weren't seperate drainage systems and all drainage routes lead to the dirty sewer in our area. It's just by a 50/50 chance of good fortune that ours were plumbed correctly, following the advice we were originally given, which was subsequently confirmed to be a nonsense by the guys who came to check a few months back!
-
-
In many cases around here there will only be a single sewer, as that's generally what the Victorians did -in this situation it won't make any difference how your pipes are connected.
You can check whether your house could be a problem at this web site:
http://www.connectright.org.uk/check-your-existing-connections/
Ideally of course, we should all be collecting rainwater & use it to flush toilets, wash clothes etc - but it's not a cheap option!
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/beinggreen/1189...
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
