5 The purpose of drainage 5.

1 The safe drainage of waste water

5 The purpose of drainage

5.1 The safe drainage of waste water

Waste water contains substances that can be harmful to people and the environment. For example,
infectious diseases can be transmitted by human excretions from toilet facilities. For this reason, waste water
must be safely drained in a hygienic and ecological manner and treated before it is discharged into lakes or
rivers.

5.2 Legal principles and requirements

The requirement to drain waste water safely, hygienically and ecologically has been adopted by the legal
regulations of many countries. Even though the legal regulations may differ in terms of their details, they
share the same principles for safe waste water drainage:
• contaminated waste water must not be discharged or allowed to seep into waterways.
• if there is a public sewage system, waste water must be discharged into the public sewage system.
The following drainage system requirements arise from the legal principles:
• suitable for collecting and draining waste water
• resistant to approved types of waste water
• prevents contact between the user of the drainage system and the waste water
• fast and direct draining of the waste water into the sewage system

5.3 Prohibited substances for drainage systems

In order to comply with the legal principles and requirements, substances which cause the drainage system
to malfunction or which cannot be removed from the waste water through conventional treatment processes
must not be discharged into drainage systems. Such substances must be retained at the source and drained
or disposed of appropriately. These include:
• gases and vapours
• toxic, flammable, explosive and radioactive substances
• malodorous substances
• discharges from cesspits, manure pits and feed silos
• substances that can cause the sewage system to malfunction such as sand, scree, debris, ash, slag
• viscous and muddy substances such as bitumen, limescale, cement slurry
• oils, lubricants, gasoline, benzene, petroleum ether, kerosene, solvents, halogenated hydrocarbons, etc.
• acids and alkalis in harmful concentrations
• waste water above 60 °C which, after mixing, raises the temperature of the waste water in the sewage
system to over 40 °C.
The use of rubbish and kitchen waste grinders is not recommended in drainage systems and can even be
prohibited by country-specific regulations. Substances and liquids from these types of grinders can lead to
increased deposits and subsequently block the drainage system.

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