Due to the recent happening of snakes found in water closets, it has become imperative for design engineers to weigh in on this.
I am Engineer Haastrup Adebusuyi, (MNSE, COREN) managing director of Rubix Integrated Services Limited.
HOW DO SNAKES GET INTO SANITARY FIXTURES:
The following are possible ways in which we have identified as possible ways in which snakes could be found in sanitary fixtures:
1) Through ventilation pipes and pipe clean out: Snakes from trees could easily find ways into a plumbing system from nearby trees, pipe clean outs which are left open etc.
2) Through cracks and holes in septic tanks and man holes.
The following are our proposed solutions this growing occurrences:
ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS:
A lot has been said about environmental solution and we would like to briefly touch on them.
1) Ensure nearby bushes are cleared.
2) Keep rodents away from home as much as possible
3) Use fumigation as much as possible.
ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS:
Having done our part in keeping environments clean, some simple strategies can help in reducing the occurrence of finding snakes in your WCs or other sanitary fixtures:
1) The use of wire mesh on vent pipes and clean outs: As simple as this may sound, this is very key and instrumental in protection from snakes in WC. It should become a standard practice for engineers, installers, home owners to make this a common practice as this simple strategy to be life saving.
2) Making Man holes and septic tank air tight: As simple as this may also sound, quite a number of building will find out that the septic tanks or man holes have become vulnerable to snakes due to holes/cracks that may have come up over the years. It is imperative that building occupants ensure that every man hole and septic tank is being sealed off completely and made to be air tight. This is very critical as no snake or rodent can ever find its way into an air tight space.
3) The use of toilet Safety valves: If everything has failed, there must be something we can still do as engineers to ensure that we do not find ourselves at the mercy of snakes, and that is with the use of a toilet safety valve. As the name implies, a toilet safety valve is a valve which allows a flow in only one direction and seals up after the flow. As a design engineer, we can recommend that this valve be located at 2 critical points of a drainage line:
i) at the immediate drain pipe outlet of the WC the discharges into the immediate man hole, this will mitigate against any compromised manhole.
ii) at the end of the drain pipe out let that discharges into the septic tank, this is mitigate against a compromised septic tank.
The youtube video below shows an illustration of the use of a toilet safety valve. (Note that this is not an advert of any product it was simply the best video we could find to illustrate the use of a toilet safety valve)
Thank you for you time and we hope this article would be instrumental. Feel free to share, you just might save a life by sharing.