“This is a sewer system that has not been repaired for a long time and eventually clogged the pipe. When we went to open it, all the waste fell out at once, so this fountain of sludge and waste.”

Glaicon Tulio, a cesspool cleaner in Florianopolis, describes the scene while showing a video to a reporter on his mobile phone. no data+????????

When using pits, residents are responsible for establishing and maintaining a waste collection and disposal system. Photo: Marcelo Feble/NDTV.

Images of the “garbage fountain” were recorded in the bathroom of a house in the south of the island. An extreme case, but not so rare in the daily life of a professional who maintains a profile on the social network TikTok, in which he shares some, to put it mildly, unpleasant situations.

The lack of maintenance that Glaikon mentions is not due to the mayor’s office or Kazan, who are responsible for the sewer network in the capital, but to the residents of the residence themselves.

After all, the use of septic tanks (which are individual sewer systems) is still a reality in most Florianopolis homes. And with improper care, the result is clogging, overflow and saturation of the soil.

The vast majority of municipalities in Santa Catarina still do not have a sewage collection network, making the septic tank the most common system in Santa Catarina. According to the most recent SNIS data, 73% of Santa Catarina’s population has an individual collection system.

The state has 5.3 million residents who directly manage the sewer system itself. The main problem is that many do not even know about it. Despite the septic tank being so “popular” in Santa Catarina homes, the operations and responsibilities associated with a septic tank are still unknown to the general population.

“Few people really care about the system, they care about their problems. “My vase didn’t fall, I’ll call the company.” But he does not do prevention to take care of the environment,” says plunger Glaicon Tulio.

Hence most of the difficulties associated with basic sanitation in Santa Catarina. So many people who neglect their own wastewater – often in large urban centers – lead to adverse environmental, economic and health situations.

Pit requires care and maintenance

Not everyone knows where their own wastewater goes or if they have a collective or individual treatment system. Plumber Mariana de Souza explains that “having a septic tank is like having a mini-sewage plant in your backyard.”

However, it should be remembered that this system is designed for periodic cleaning.

Mariana confirms that the pit is often forgotten. “Most of all, cement is being poured, garages are being laid, tiles are being laid … These checkpoints are necessary, and if something spills, then you need to clean it up.”

There are cases when a cesspool is ignored due to the ignorance of the population. “Sometimes people hide it unintentionally, they say, ‘Ah, I don’t have (a cesspool).'” But they do. There is no possibility of not having it, if not, where does the sewage go? It doesn’t disappear,” he says.

According to plunger Gleycon Tulio, neglect is constant. He argues that there is a trend towards delegating responsibilities in homes with high turnover, which he calls a “rental culture,” he says. “They think, ‘Will I pay to leave this to someone else?’

A scenario that makes the service of those who will clean them even more difficult. “There are a lot of these cases where we don’t even know where the mouth of the septic tank is, and another thing that often happens is overflow, when the septic tank fills up in such a way that it overflows into the street,” Glaicon emphasizes.

How do I know if my home has a septic or sewer system?

In case a resident does not know what type of treatment they have at home, there are some easy ways to determine. A very practical way is to see if there is a screening point on the street where you live. It is usually found in the middle of the street or on the sidewalk, a simple cover. These are the visiting points of the network.

Another way is to simply see how much you are paying for the service. Residents are required to connect the sewer to the collector network as soon as it appears on the street. Therefore, the fee is charged to the resident.

Overflow and infiltration into the soil pose a risk to the environment

Before the moment of overflow or causing more serious damage to the soil, the pit goes through several stages. According to Gleicon Tulio, the first step in such situations is the incomplete configuration of most systems present in homes.

“What we usually find is just a hole and a sinkhole. In 90% of cases there is no filter. The consequence of this is soil pollution as the manure is thrown out directly without proper filtration. In the long run, this shuts down the entire system,” he explains.

From this type of “loophole” the sewer stops working. This means that all the waste produced – from the shower to the grease trap – accumulates in one place. And the longer without maintenance, the greater the damage.

It is at this point that the Resident begins to feel uncomfortable, as the absorption is no longer there. “What happens? It blocks the system itself, and then it can leak in cases of infiltration, in some cases growing to the ground. Because the system is full, there is nowhere else to go, and it starts to kick out wherever it can, right? says the piston.

And in this case, it starts to hit the pocket, as cleaning begins to be required more often. “We clean it up and it ends up taking two to three months and the system fills up again, overflows or creates infiltration.”

HOW does a septic tank work

Understand how a septic tank works – Photo: Leandro Maciel