Clearing the blockage

The City’s stock excuse for sewer overflows seems to be that the public are putting the wrong things down their toilets.

Of course, there are cases where the sewers are being horribly abused and blockages result that cause spills. However, the City starts to push the bounds of credibility when it offers that same excuse over and over again without ever conceding that just maybe its densification policies might also be causing some of the sewage problems in the greater Table View area.

The cautionary the City puts out regularly about putting the wrong things into the sewer system is somewhat laughable when one considers that it is one of the biggest offenders.

Yes, our sewers shouldn’t be expected to cope with nappies, cooking oil and sanitary pads, but they also can’t be expected to choke down four-storey blocks of flats that suddenly spring up in neighbourhoods originally laid out for single-storey suburban homes.

The apparent carte blanche the City gives developers to put up these behemoths – squeezing them up against boundary walls of neighbouring homes – is straining sewers, roads and water pipes and destroying the value of homes that owners have put their life savings into.

It takes a ballot box to clear that sort of blockage.