Spring means the rainy season, which is often associated with one major complication: large amounts of rainwater on the property. Poland is currently launching inspections to check whether people have their gutters connected to public sewers. This is a fairly common practice, but one for which you can be heavily fined. Yet many people do not even know that such a solution is prohibited.

My grandparents have quite a large plot of land around their house. They have water barrels under their gutters, which they use in the garden after the rain. If the barrel overflows, the rainwater soaks into the soil around it without any problem. But not everyone is so lucky. For example, their neighbours have a relatively small plot of land and the settled water often caused problems in their garden after the rains. I know that before they got the water tanks, they also drained it into the sewer for some time. But that is illegal. And in Poland, they’ve now decided to fight it big time.

Smoke inspections

“Due to the large amount of clean water flowing in our sewers, smoke control will be carried out in the coming months,” announced Kazimierz Cebrat, the mayor of Wilamowice, for example, recently.

Other Polish municipalities are also currently carrying out so-called fumigation of their sewers. This is a way to check that the gutters of houses are not connected to public sewers. How does it work? Harmless thick smoke is released into the sewer network. This is then spread through the pipes. If it leaks out in some places, it can tell who has gutters illegally connected to the sewer. These people then pay heavy fines.

If smoke appears where it shouldn’t, it can cost the homeowner up to PLN 10 000. Illegally connecting gutters to the sewerage system can even lead to imprisonment in some more serious cases.

In Poland, people are punished with heavy fines for poorly watered gutters. ━━ In Poland, people are punished with heavy fines for poorly watered gutters. ( Source: Georgi Zvezdov /  Unsplash+ )

Why is this such a problem?

I know several people who have no idea that it is illegal to connect their gutters to the sewer system. If the water on your property doesn’t drain well, what else is there to do with it, right? Except that there are actually solutions (such as water tanks). And ignorance is no excuse.

Water from gutters in public drains, where normally only toilet waste and water from the kitchen and bathroom would go, can cause significant problems. Drains become unnecessarily overloaded after rain. The sewage treatment plant has a worse job because the water is diluted and can clog the system. It is therefore very important that people obey the law and do not let water into the sewers.