english – Accident in a drain - these are the consequences!
Regular maintenance and investment in the public sewer system are important! Residents of the town of Geesthacht an der Elbe are now experiencing what happens when a sewer breaks down.
A public sewer has partially collapsed in a busy street. “Until a temporary receiving pipe is installed, the wastewater is regularly collected from the public manholes with a vacuum truck and discharged elsewhere,” according to an article in the Hamburger Abendblatt.
"We don't know the cause behind this specific case. However, we do know that many local authorities have a dormant problem with damage to their public sewage networks. Network operators are doing their best to renovate their ageing pipes and manholes - and often fail because they are competing for funding with the construction of new playgrounds or cycle paths, for example,” comments RSV Managing Director Reinhild Haacker. “The fact that the renovation of wastewater systems is at least as important is often difficult to explain to politicians and citizens.” If trenchless replacement is no longer possible, the costs for open-cut replacement are often many times higher.
Regular inspections and the maintenance of sewers help to prevent backwashing, one-day bursts and overflowing manholes during heavy rainfall.