Save the drain for rain

Make sure your downpipes are connected correctly

If stormwater gets into the sanitary sewer it can flood out the sewers and pump stations that convey sewage to the treatment plant. This causes overflows of untreated sewage onto private properties and into streams and at beaches. This can result in our beaches being closed due to pollution.

Sanitary sewers (which take our household wastes to the treatment plant) are generally built 5-6 times bigger than the estimated load from the house they are connected to. However the rainwater runoff from one house can be as much as the waste produced by 150 extra people. This means that just one down-pipe wrongly connected to a house can cause huge sewer overloads in wet weather.

What should you do?

Check the stormwater downpipes from your house are properly connected to the stormwater gully trap or drain. If they are not, have them fixed.