Before Christmas 2011, the sewer pipe running the length of the gardens on the west side of Avondale Place became blocked with extremely unpleasant and disruptive consequences.
This is not the first time a sewer pipe has become blocked and one of the main reasons it happens is because fat is put down kitchen sinks and becomes congealed and hardened, usually in combination with other types of waste (nappies, cotton buds etc) put down lavatories. The result is the formation of a
hard ball which can block the end of the pipe. These fat balls are very difficult and costly to remove and may require excavation to reach them, usually within a garden.
The ideal solution would be for Scottish Water to fit new, larger sewer pipes in all streets, but this is very unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future and would involve all residents having to renew (at their own
expense) the sewer connections between their properties and the new sewer.
The answer in the short term is simple:
DON’T PUT FAT DOWN THE SINK and
DON’T PUT NAPPIES, COTTON BUDS AND OTHER BULKY WASTE DOWN THE LAVATORY