More than 1600 household sewer blockages have been eliminated in Nizhny Novgorod since the beginning of the year.

      Over 1600 household blockages in external sewage networks have been eliminated by the employees of JSC "Unified Utility Operator" in the first three months of 2026. Daily, the company's teams respond to similar requests between 10 to 30 times, as well as for cleaning the intake chambers of sewage pumping stations (SPS). The company services a total of 129 SPS, with some requiring daily visits. "Most blockages in sewage networks could have been avoided with proper use of household sewage systems in the apartments of Nizhny Novgorod residents. Toilet paper, wet wipes, and pet litter do not dissolve in water and often lead to blockages in both internal and external sewage networks. Wet wipes are particularly dangerous: when they get caught in the impeller of the pumping unit at the SPS, the material heats up and turns into plastic, which leads to the failure of the pumping equipment," noted Mikhail Novokreshchenov, head of the sewage management department at JSC "Unified Utility Operator," during an inspection of the SPS maintenance work in the Sormovsky district. Specialists conducted cleaning of the intake basket and pumping equipment of the station. This time, more than 10 buckets of various household waste were retrieved from the intake chamber, and this happens constantly. According to Mikhail Novokreshchenov, several emergency teams have to manually clean the intake chambers of SPS simultaneously in different areas of the city every day. "Residents often do not think and throw inorganic waste into the toilet, which belongs in the trash bin, not in the sewage system. Such waste causes blockages, equipment failures, flooding of sewage networks and basements, and spillage of wastewater onto the surface. Sewage is civilization, not a garbage chute. Let's follow the rules for using this benefit. Do not throw waste ourselves and teach our children to treat it with care," urged Mikhail Novokreshchenov. It should be noted that wastewater from sewage pumping stations is directed to the Nizhny Novgorod aeration station via collectors with the help of pumps. Before going through all stages of purification, over 400,000 cubic meters of wastewater enter the screening building daily through the intake channels. Here, during primary mechanical cleaning, 10 tons of waste are caught every day. A large amount of inorganic waste leads to overload and failure of the aeration station's equipment. Waste in wastewater does not provide any food for the bacteria that conduct biological purification of wastewater in the primary settling tanks and aeration tanks of the NSA. For reference: The Nizhny Novgorod aeration station is the largest treatment facility in the Nizhny Novgorod region, with an average daily inflow of over 400,000 cubic meters of wastewater. For the first time since the station was built in 1974, a large-scale modernization is being carried out. The work started in 2022, is divided into stages, and is conducted without stopping the acceptance of wastewater. The first stage of reconstruction, which included 50 facilities, has now been completed. Work is also underway to design the second stage of reconstruction of the NSA, which will include 61 facilities.