An overflowing sewage tank is unpleasant, it is a health risk, and it gets worse for every minute the household or the building keeps using water. The good news is that the right response is simple, and the first steps cost nothing. Here is what to do, in order.
Step 1: Stop adding to it
Everything that goes down a drain in the property ends up in the tank. Until a tanker has emptied it, stop using water wherever you can: no flushing, no showers, no washing machine or dishwasher, no hosing down the yard. In an apartment building or labour camp, tell the watchman or camp boss to pass the message on to every unit. This single step is the difference between a puddle and a flooded yard.
Step 2: Keep people away from it
Sewage water carries bacteria and should be treated as contaminated. Keep children, pets and staff away from the standing water, and do not walk through it and then into the house. If it has reached an area where people must pass, mark it off. Do not open the tank cover to look inside — the gases in a sewage tank can be dangerous in a confined space, and there is nothing useful you can do from there anyway.
Step 3: Do not wash it into the street
It is tempting to hose the overflow towards the road or the nearest storm drain. Do not. Storm drains are not connected to the sewage system, so that moves untreated sewage into the public drainage network, and it is exactly the illegal discharge the municipality inspects for. The only proper route for sewage is a permitted tanker to the treatment plant. Our guide on how wastewater is transported and disposed of in Sharjah explains that route.
Step 4: Call a tanker, and have the answers ready
Call rather than message when the tank is actively overflowing; a call gets you a real arrival time. AL NISR DRAINAGE answers +971 54 246 3788 twenty-four hours a day. Whoever you call, they will ask the same things, so have them ready:
- Your exact location, with a landmark or a pin you can send by WhatsApp
- Whether it is a villa septic tank, a building holding tank, an underground tank or a manhole
- Roughly how big the tank is, or at least how many people it serves
- Where the tank cover is and how close a tanker can get to it
- Whether the water is still rising
The last point matters: if the tank is still filling because water use has not stopped, say so, and the dispatcher can prioritise accordingly. Our emergency drainage page covers what the emergency visit involves.
Step 5: After the tanker leaves
Once the tank is emptied, the standing water will usually drain back into it. Rinse contaminated hard surfaces with clean water and a household disinfectant, and let them dry in the sun. Anything porous that was soaked in sewage — rugs, cardboard, soft furnishings — is usually not worth keeping.
Then ask why it happened. Almost every overflow has one of a handful of causes: a collection that was late or missed, a tank that has only ever been pumped and has lost capacity to sludge, an increase in occupancy, a failed pump, or a blockage in a chamber between the building and the tank. The tanker driver will usually be able to tell you which.
Making sure it does not happen again
If the tank is full of sludge, book a proper sewage tank cleaning rather than another pump-out, so you get the full capacity back. Then set a collection interval that keeps you ahead of it, and tighten it if occupancy rises. For scheduled sewage water removal anywhere in Sharjah, call us and we will work the interval out from your tank and your numbers.