The weird and wonderful of Adelaide’s sewers

From an intact footy, to the Caped Crusader’s costume, SA Water has today revealed the top five weirdest objects that have been flushed down the toilet by Adelaideians.

A pair of pants, false teeth and a traffic cone round out the list, which was curated by plant operators at the utility’s Bolivar facility after taking stock of recent ‘unflushable’ hauls.

SA Water’s Senior Manager of Production and Treatment Lisa Hannant said while the weird and wonderful objects provide a never-ending source of entertainment, they also come with plenty of nuisance.

“Every year, we remove a large number of items from our sewers which shouldn’t have been there in the first place and we’re constantly amazed by what people have tried to flush!” Lisa said.

“It was rather difficult to narrow it down to a ‘top five’ list, as there’s some truly ridiculous things Adelaideians put down the toilet.

“Perhaps the footy was a victim of this year’s Showdown, with the person hoping to flush the loss from their mind.

“My personal favourite is the superhero costume – while their flushing habits are definitely questionable, there’s a chance they saw the bat signal calling for help and thought our sewer network was the quickest way to get to where they were needed.

“Larger, solid objects like this can easily block your private plumbing and our sewer pipes when flushed, which poses a real risk of an internal overflow.

“What’s been flushed can come back up, and nobody wants their laundry, bathroom or kitchen to be awash with your number ones and twos.

“The solution is super simple. Only ever flush the three Ps – pee, poo and (toilet) paper – and in the instance of the costume and footy, they should have been placed in the general waste bin instead.

“I think trying to flush a traffic cone would be too audacious, so it’s more than likely someone managed to open one of our access covers on the road and pushed the cone into the sewers.

“Adelaideians might think what goes into the sewer is a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’, however, I’ve seen some of the nastiest sewage overflows and let me tell you, those sights may never leave my mind.

“We need to respect our sewers instead of treating like rubbish bins, and in turn, they’ll look after us by helping protect public health.”

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