MAIN FEATURE
Protecting our ageing sewer network
If there is one thing we do know about the UK’s sewer network, it’s that we really do NOT know what is beneath us much of the time. A plethora of old and different types of pipes and chambers, silently carrying our sewerage to a network of treatment centres or storing it in septic tanks, there really is all sorts down there. From very old cast iron to concrete, from clay to plastic to pitch fibre, asbestos and goodness knows what else. So much of it just functions and it’s not until something goes wrong that it is looked into (or even discovered). Data records of where and what everything is down there are sometimes sketchy or incorrect. So, the first thing to advocate is supreme caution.
The challenge Which makes our first challenge the need for extreme care, when inspecting, maintaining or replacing any of our
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precious sewer facilities. Care not just because of the fragility of so much of it, but also caution due to the dangers of working in confined spaces with noxious and toxic odours, and possibly unknown additional hazards.
Most of us know the rough history of our sewerage network and also how the Victorians created magnificent structures beneath cities like London to remove the stench and open running sewers from the streets. Some of those Victorian structures still stand today, and we’re talking about almost two centuries now. Phenomenal really, although not all were built well – but more on that later. Long before the Victorians, the Romans also created their own sewer networks and incredibly some of these survive too. The ultimate success of any sewer network relies heavily on the ongoing ground conditions present around it.
Many of our sewers are in a precarious and fragile state, and with increasingly
| August 2024 |
www.draintraderltd.com
Written by Bridget Summers bridget @
footprintpr.org.uk
frequent bouts of ‘exceptional weather’ causing flooding and overflows, plus the simple results of population increase and therefore higher demand on them, many need help to be replaced, refurbished or upgraded to better answer the needs of an expanding population and an uncertain climate future.
It is a fact that running and maintaining such an ageing infrastructure is both expensive and dependent on people- heavy manual operations as it is tricky to integrate such old systems into efficient, digital and often third-party operated ones. Less can be done remotely in an industry where there are shortages of skilled people, an ageing workforce and fundamentally, a rapidly changing climate that increases the challenges daily.
Then there are also specific factors like fatberg issues, something the Romans and Victorians probably did not have to deal with, caused by cooking fats, wet
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