World Toilet Day 2016

Today November 19th, 2016 is  World Toilet Day .

What does working as a plumber in Sydney, one of the greatest cities in the world, mean to me on World Toilet Day?

This is a city of contrast and we get to see mostly the top end where it’s nothing for people to spend over $1000 to buy a new toilet.

Many of the houses we visit have 2 or more toilets and many of us take it for granted that we can use a toilet, then flush the loo with clean drinking water from our seemingly endless water supply.

A lot of Sydneysiders would be surprised to know that about 1/3 of the world’s population have neither a toilet to use or clean running water to drink. Let alone flushing away their bodily waste off to a treatment works, somewhere out of sight. And out of mind!

Today, when you use your toilet, think for a moment how we might help those less fortunate.

During your Christmas holiday, if you visit an underprivileged country and experience poor toilet hygiene, think of those people and how we may be able to help them before World Toilet Day 2017. If you’ve got the stomach for it, take a picture of your travel experience and send it to me.

I’d like to raise awareness of this simple missing basic need for so many.

Why you should look inside your pipes

You’ve got a blocked drain and your plumber puts a camera in the drain to see whats going on down there!

What happens after that?

Plenty of homeowners don’t get to see the footage their plumber has taken of the inside of their pipes. For some reason, the plumber chooses to keep what is going on in your pipes a secret from you.

Why?

Like any medical scan or x-ray of your body, it shouldn’t be kept a secret from you.

You should be able to see what’s going on in your drains so you can get a greater understanding of how the drains work. Or don’t!

Then, you can make an informed decision about how to repair your pipes and get other professional opinions on how to do that.

There are many ways to maintain your pipes and drains.

So if your plumber recommends a particular method of pipe repair after he puts a camera in your drains then tells you what he saw… but doesn’t show you, ask him for a copy of the pipe survey.

After all, he has billed you for it.

This survey shows a section of re-lined pipe with earthenware pipes and tree roots.