Ipswich City Council

Ipswich Water > Residential > Wastewater Services >

Community Health

An efficient wastewater system helps protect public health, safety and the environment. Wastewater systems (sewers) convey wastewater from homes, industries, hospitals and commercial institutions to treatment facilities for safe disposal.

While our treatment system is highly capable of treating wastewater to a 'fit for purpose' standard, it is often more efficient to prevent contaminants from entering the collection system in the first instance - this is known as source water control.

The community shares our responsibility to ensure our wastewater system is not compromised by interference or the discharge of non-sewerable wastes.

Your Responsibilities

A house drain is a privately owned sanitary drain collecting wastewater from your individual premises and drains into an Ipswich Water owned wastewater system. Our ownership and responsibility of the wastewater system terminates at the first inspection opening to the property connection, if the inspection opening is located inside the property. If the inspection opening is located outside the property, Ipswich Water then owns and maintains that part of the house drain up to the boundary.

A 'combined' house drain is a sanitary drain collecting wastewater from two or more properties and drains into a single connection to the wastewater system or manhole. Such combined sanitary drains are jointly owned by properties to which they are connected.

You need to ensure that:

manholes can be accessed at all times for maintenance purposes and emergency situations
you do not build any structure above the wastewater system as loads may cause damage and excavation of the pipes may be required in future
take care with waste disposal as foreign objects dumped into house drains or the wastewater system can cause severe overflows of sewage in private properties and waterways
you are aware that stormwater is not permitted to enter the wastewater system - connections of roof drains to wastewater systems are illegal under State legislation since it can create excess flows causing an overflow to the environment and some potentially serious public health concerns

Overflows are health hazards and damage the environment causing expensive clean up bills. It is crucial our wastewater systems are protected from blockage caused by foreign objects and inappropriate wastes.

How you can help

Everyone can help to reduce the quantity and improve the quality of wastewater going to the sewerage treatment plant.

Compost your kitchen scraps
This creates an extra load on our wastewater systems
Create less wastewater
Conserve water
Never put harmful substances down sinks, toilets or stormwater drains
These include petrol, grease, oil, pesticides and herbicides, solvents, medicines etc
Use biodegradable and phosphate-free detergents and soaps

Last Updated 9 Apr 2009 |

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