Irish Water has issued an urgent appeal for people to only throw the ‘three P’s’ down the toilet because wipes and other materials are causing massive blockages in the sewerage system.
The P’s are ‘pee, poop and (toilet) paper, while other items such as plastic, hair, contact lenses and the infamous wipes so hated of the waste industry are causing huge problems. Irish Water’s Asset Operations Manager, Margaret Attridge told Pat Kenny’s show on Newstalk yesterday that they are removing 70 tonnes of horrible blockages from the Ringsend treatment plant in Dublin every week.
This is the equivalent of five double decker buses packed with wipes and other materials every week. Ms Attridge said waste products mix with oil to form “rock-solid” blockages that are “very difficult and costly to remove.”
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She added: “This can end up flooding your property or flowing into our rivers or streams or coastal waters – damaging our waters and polluting the seas that we swim in.”
Ms Attridge said: “The Covid-19 pandemic saw a huge increase in blockages as people were using more wipes and flushing them down the toilet.
"When people were sitting at home in those early days of Covid when it was very sunny, enjoying the sunshine in the background when we couldn’t go to work, the crews who clean our networks were extremely busy cleaning this build-up of wipes.”
“Every month we remove 70 tonnes of wipes and other items from that treatment plant – that's equivalent to five double decker busses stuffed with wipes and other items.”
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