How Do We Solve Drainage Misconnection Problems

Drain misconnections and cross contamination issues are a hot topic at the moment and rightly so, websites such as www.connectright.org.uk have been set up and publicised by all the major water companies in an effort to educate the general public on the subject.

However at this stage the only miscconection issues that get resolved are when the Environment Agency targets a specific section of a river, water course or brook that has a major pollution issue or a housing estate is targeted by the E.A or the local Water Company.

All parties involved are clearly stretched as it is and would no doubt rather re-direct the funds and man power in other directions, and lets not forget that we as tax payers are funding this work.

The Solution - Drainage Contractors

There has definitely been a shift in the UK Drainage Industry within the last couple of years towards unified training and certification schemes and this is now taking shape at a good pace, I for one have been writing articles for several years suggesting pre-purchase drain camera surveys should be compulsory so the answer is pretty clear.

A quick google search shows that there are currently approximately 583,000 properties for sale in the UK and in April 2014 approximately 70,000 homes were lodged for registration with the land registry in England and Wales and this is a market on the increase.

If every property for sale was subject to a pre-purchase drain camera inspection by a qualified and certified drain surveyor who is trained to investigate and identify misconnections we could make a real difference to this kind of pollution, each survey would be viewed and passed by the RICS Chartered Surveyor(s) over seeing the survey and the cost of rectifying the problem would fall to either the vendor or purchaser as a condition of the sale.

Given that the energy efficiency of a property plays such a major part of a house purchase survey then surely any drainage defects or faults that lead to a pollution risk should carry the same environmental concerns

related page - should we change the way we buy and sell houses ?

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