Icon Water is continuing its fight to ‘free the poo’, launching the second phase of its public education campaign to help reduce blockages in Canberra’s wastewater pipes.
General Manager of Customer Engagement at Icon Water, Davina McCormick said while the original Free the Poo campaign was squarely focused on the message “Wet Wipes Block Pipes”, the second phase would take on the lesser-known issue of sanitary products contributing to wastewater pipes blockages.
“The little poo character which has adorned Canberra buses is back, this time fighting blockages caused by sanitary products,” Ms McCormick said.
She said research conducted by Icon Water showed 11 per cent of Canberrans surveyed reported flushing a sanitary item.
Ms McCormick said of those who had flushed a sanitary item, 43 per cent said they were not aware that sanitary products such as tampons would cause issues in our wastewater network and an additional 41 per cent of those said they had flushed sanitary products because there was no other disposal option provided.
“Our blockage busters repair teams were reporting to us that these products were definitely a problem,” the General Manager said.
“Unfortunately, Canberra continues to have blockages in wastewater pipes,” she said.
“Some of these impact households, while others are in Icon Water pipes, the cost of which are borne by all customers.”
Ms McCormick said the Free the Poo education campaigns were important because many of these blockages were avoidable or the impact could be significantly reduced.
“We need to respect that many people are private about their use of sanitary products, and that’s where providing safe disposal options can make a real difference.”
