Scottish Water uses bold tactic to help tackle sewer blockages

To highlight the scale and nature of the problem caused by people wrongly flushing wipes down toilets, the company’s fleet of sewer response teams will be equipped with new signage which they will display before leaving a street stencil on the pavement saying “Another blockage cleared. Flushing wipes blocks pipes. Bin the wipes.”

Scottish Water clears about 100 blockages per day – about 36,000 per year – and wipes are found in 80% of them. It costs about £216 to clear an individual blockage and about £23,000 per day to attend to them across Scotland.

The utility is calling on people to dispose of wipes in the bin, along with other bathroom items such as period products and cotton buds and to flush only the 3Ps down toilets – pee, poo and (toilet) paper.

The new signage and street stencils, which are part of Scottish Water’s ongoing Nature Calls campaign designed to encourage people to help prevent blockages which can cause flooding of properties and pollution, will be used across the country at every blockage the company attends to encourage people to follow its advice and bin the wipes.

This will include towns which are hotspot areas for blockages. These visits involve community engagement teams also laying down street stencils and displaying posters, and hosting a stall in a local supermarket where the community can discuss the issue of blocked sewer pipes and how everyone can change their behaviour to prevent them.

The company also gives away free products to aid behaviour change including reusable wipes, small bathroom bins and gunk pots for kitchen use to dispose of fats, oil and grease.

Garry Kirkwood, customer manager - sewer response, at Scottish Water, said: “To some, the street stencils might be regarded as graffiti, but they are temporary and convey a very important message. The real damage is happening below the surface.

“We will use them whenever our Sewer Response teams attend to clear a blockage.

“We hope the signage and stencils have a lasting impact wherever they are used.”