Guidance Notes on Discharges from Village Houses

Precautions when planning for a new STS

24. Remember "PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE".

Before you decide to construct a new STS
either to serve your new village house,

or to replace your problematic STS,
or to extend your undersized STS,
or to match your plan to install flushing toilets and shower etc. in your house, you should:
   
(a) ensure first that there is no communal sewer available into which you could connect (see paragraph 35). Approach nearby developments to consider the possibility of a joint connection to communal sewer being made;
   
(b) examine the feasibility of a STS, and carry out a soil percolation test before deciding to construct a STS;

 

(Note : A STS is not feasible in areas
i) prone to flooding during storms,
ii) with high groundwater table, OR
iii) with impermeable soil.)
   
(c) locate and size your STS suitably, and allow adequate land for its construction , i.e.
i) do not locate your STS near streams, wells, retaining walls, etc., or beneath your house,
ii) size your STS according to your anticipated maximum discharge loading and the absorption capacity of the local soil (based on soil percolation test results obtained beforehand), and
iii) locate your STS in an open space with easy access for desludging;
   
(d) investigate the possibility of constructing a communal STS or communal sewage treatment plant; (This will probably help to alleviate problems associated with scarcity of land for individual STS's, poor soil permeability and sites too close to streams etc.); and
   
(e) SEEK SPECIALIST ADVICE WHENEVER YOU ARE IN DOUBT.

 

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