How To Prevent Chokes and Blockages?
The saying ‘prevention is better than cure’ is especially prevalent when it comes to the Grease Trap Industry in Singapore. The Purpose Of a Grease Trap is to prevent grease and solid waste from entering a sanitary sewer system as it causes clogs and blockages. Nobody likes the sight of choked grease chambers or encrustation inside sewers by solidified grease discharge, so it’s crucial to manage your sewerage system well.
Why must the discharge of trade effluent from your private sewerage system into public sewers be controlled?
Sewers carry used water to water reclamation plants (WRPs) and are further treated to be reused for other purposes.
Fat, oil and grease (FOL) cause blockages in the sewers if they’re frequently discharged into them. Over time, they obstruct the smooth flow of used water as they are particles that can be solidified and cause physical blockage.
What happens when a blockage occurs?
Once a blockage occurs, undesirable consequences such as the overflow of used water into private premises and public areas may occur. Offensive odours will also be present. This is likely to cause unhappiness in patrons and neighbouring businesses. Rather than allowing such events to happen and tarnishing a food business’ reputation, it’s better to line up proper checks and follow procedures so that you’ll always have an efficiently operating sewer system.
How to prevent obstructions from happening?
Food shops, restaurants and other eating establishments in Singapore are hotspots for blockages in sewers due to a lage number of FOL discharged from these eateries. In order to prevent chokes and blockages from happening, routine checks from NEA licensed general waste collectors and adopt good practices in the work area to reduce greasy waste discharge. According to commercial kitchen grease trap guidelines under the Sewerage and Drainage Act (SDA), the key things every eating establishment owner must do are to install a grease trap, monitor the concentrations of certain substances in your trade effluent, and also to ensure that all sullage water from your food shop, restaurant or eating establishment is discharged into the sewerage system via a grease trap. By doing so, the likelihood of chokes or blockages in your grease trap will be effectively minimised.
Here’s a daily checklist that helps keep grease traps for commercial kitchen clean:
- Check for offensive odours in the vicinity where there is a private sewer underneath as well as around the grease trap.
- Check for the presence of vectors such as cockroaches and rats in the vicinity where there is a private sewer underneath as well as around the grease trap.
- Check for signs of water overflowing from inspection chambers.
- Check for signs of water overflowing from floor traps.
- Check for signs of slow draining of water in sanitary fittings such as toilet bowls.
- Check for signs of water sprouting out from the ground in the vicinity where there is a private sewer underneath.
- Check the condition of the grease trap on a regular basis.
- Check that access to the inspection chambers and the covers of grease traps are kept free of obstruction.
Information from pub.gov.sg.
