Why Traditional Sewer Cleaning Methods Are No Longer Sustainable?

Sewer cleaning is one of the most critical parts of keeping a city safe, hygienic, and functional. For decades, cities have relied on traditional sewer cleaning methods such as manual cleaning, rodding, desilting, bucket cleaning, jetting, and emergency-based maintenance.

But urban sanitation systems are changing.

Sewer pipelines are becoming older, deeper, more congested, and more difficult to maintain. At the same time, cities are under pressure to reduce sewer overflows, protect sanitation workers, improve public health, and manage underground assets more efficiently.

This is why traditional sewer cleaning methods are no longer enough on their own.

The future of sewer and manhole cleaning must be safer, more mechanised, more preventive, and more data-driven. At Solinas Integrity, this belief drives our work in robotic sewer inspection, manhole cleaning robots, AI-based defect detection, and digital infrastructure intelligence.

What are traditional sewer cleaning methods?

Traditional sewer cleaning usually includes a few common methods.

1. Manual Scavenging

Manual cleaning involves workers physically removing waste, sludge, silt, and blockages from manholes, sewer lines, or confined spaces. In the most unsafe form, this can lead to manual scavenging, where workers are exposed directly to hazardous sewage environments.

This is one of the most dangerous and unsustainable practices in sanitation maintenance.

Inside sewer pipelines and manholes, workers may face toxic gases, low oxygen levels, infections, sharp waste, sudden flow changes, and confined-space risks. Even a short exposure in an unsafe manhole can become life-threatening. 

2. Rodding and basic tools

Rodding involves using rods or basic tools to break or push blockages inside sewer pipelines. While this may solve small blockages temporarily, it does not show the actual condition of the pipe. 

A blockage may not be just a blockage. It could be the result of silt accumulation, root intrusion, pipe deformation, joint displacement, cracks, corrosion, or a partially collapsed section. 

3. Desilting and bucket cleaning

Desilting is used to remove accumulated silt, sludge, and solid waste from manholes and sewer lines. In many cities, this is still done after an overflow, complaint, or visible blockage.

This method may restore flow for the moment, but it does not always prevent the same issue from happening again.

When desilting is done without pipeline condition assessment, the city may clear the manhole but still miss the larger problem inside the connected sewer line.

4. High-pressure jetting

High-pressure jetting uses water force to clean sewer pipelines. It is useful in many cases, but when used without prior sewer inspection, it can miss serious issues such as cracks, collapsed sections, root intrusion, or recurring blockage points.

Cleaning without understanding the pipeline condition is like treating the symptom without diagnosing the problem.

The real-world impact of traditional sewer cleaning

Imagine a busy city road where a sewer line gets blocked. Wastewater starts overflowing from a manhole. The road becomes unsafe, traffic slows down, residents complain about the smell, and nearby shops are affected.

A cleaning team is called. The manhole is opened. Workers try to clear the blockage using rods, buckets, jetting, or manual cleaning methods. The flow may be restored for the moment.

But the city still may not know the actual reason behind the blockage.

Was it due to silt accumulation?
Was there a crack inside the sewer pipeline?
Was the pipe deformed?
Was there root intrusion?
Was the same location cleaned multiple times before?
Was there a hidden structural failure?

This is the biggest limitation of traditional sewer cleaning. It often solves the visible symptom, but not the invisible cause.

Without robotic sewer inspection or digital reporting, sewer cleaning can become a cycle of repeated temporary fixes. The same location may overflow again. The same complaint may return. The same road may be disrupted again. The same sanitation team may be sent back without enough information.

This also creates a public health concern. Sewer overflows can affect roads, communities, nearby water bodies, and disease prevention efforts, especially in dense urban areas where sanitation failures quickly impact daily life.

This is where traditional methods fall short. They address what is visible, but not always what is critical.

Why are traditional sewer cleaning methods no longer sustainable?

1. They put sanitation workers at risk

The biggest issue with traditional sewer cleaning is worker safety. Manual cleaning and unsafe manhole cleaning expose sanitation workers to toxic gases, infections, drowning risk, injuries, and long-term health hazards.

No worker should have to enter a hazardous manhole when safer alternatives such as a manhole cleaning robot, sewer cleaning robot, or mechanised cleaning system are available.

2. They are mostly reactive

Traditional sewer cleaning is often complaint-driven. A problem is noticed only after a blockage, overflow, foul smell, flooding, or public disruption.

This means cities spend more time responding to failures instead of preventing them.

Modern sewer maintenance should be preventive. It should identify weak zones, recurring blockage points, and high-risk sewer pipelines before they become emergencies.

3. They do not generate useful data

One of the biggest limitations of traditional sewer cleaning is the lack of digital records.

After a sewer line is cleaned, city teams may still not have clear information on:

• Exact blockage location

• Type of defect

• Pipe condition

• Severity of damage

• Recurring risk areas

• Cleaning history

• Asset health score

• Priority for repair or rehabilitation

Without data, it becomes difficult to plan budgets, schedule maintenance, or make long-term decisions for sewer asset management.

This is where robotic inspection and AI-based condition assessment can help. Solinas’ Swasth AI supports infrastructure teams with defect detection, pipeline condition assessment, GIS-based mapping, and decision-ready reports.

4. They increase repeated maintenance costs

A sewer pipeline may be cleaned again and again, but if the root cause is not identified, the problem will return.

For example, a line may keep blocking because of a damaged joint, root intrusion, settled silt, or pipe deformation. If the city only clears the blockage without inspecting the pipeline, the same location may need repeated cleaning.

A one-time manual cleaning activity may look cheaper at first, but repeated emergency maintenance becomes expensive over time.

5. They can damage the environment

Sewer overflows can contaminate roads, stormwater drains, lakes, rivers, and groundwater. Poorly maintained sewer pipelines can also create public health risks and affect the surrounding environment.

6. They are not suitable for modern cities

Today, cities are moving towards smart infrastructure, GIS mapping, digital twins, AI-based monitoring, and preventive maintenance.

Traditional sewer cleaning methods alone cannot support this transition. They need to be replaced or supported by safer and smarter alternatives such as robotic sewer inspection, sewer cleaning robots, manhole cleaning robots, and AI-enabled infrastructure intelligence.