We need to talk about your toilet: low-flow, fatbergs, wet wipes, and bidets

Important note for subscribers: We began the OWB Newsletter one year ago. Since then, we've had our biggest success on LinkedIn, where we also publish the same newsletter content. To consolidate our efforts and resources, we'll be retiring this Ghost-hosted newsletter and focusing our publishing efforts on our LinkedIn newsletter. We hope that you'll stick with us and Subscribe on LinkedIn – same content, same perspectives, same fun, just on a different channel. Now, on to the links....

We find stories about the loo so you don't have to

• Why low-flow failed: Slate has a surprisingly thorough history of why low-flush toilets initially failed in the US with their article Flushed Away: The crappy lie Americans still believe about their toilets. "The thing is, people don’t change their toilets unless they have to. Toilets aren’t like cellphones. You don’t just buy a new one when the latest model drops. If they’re not broken, consumers usually replace them only when they’re renovating the bathroom."
• Bidet curious? Are you ready to renovate your bathroom? How about a bidet? Do you want manual? Electric? Dual wash? Warm water? The Strategist has your ultimate buying guide in The 8 Very Best Bidets: Their reviewer concludes: “I can, with confidence, say that my butt health is at a resounding 100 percent.”
• Don't call it toilet-to-tap: "Treating wastewater for reuse as drinking water has long been controversial. But as the technology has advanced and water resources dwindle, more cities are exploring direct reuse." Buckle up, America, it's actually happening! El Paso Breaks Ground on First U.S. Facility to Turn Wastewater Into Drinking Water.
• Fatberg ahoy! "When I saw it I said, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe this’. This is the biggest I’ve seen and it is the largest we’ve seen in Western Australia." A Foul 30-tonne fatberg cleared from Perth’s sewer system. Last year, we reported on Sydney Water's new public outreach campaign, A blocked loo is on you, which is one of the best campaigns we've ever seen about what you shouldn't put down the toilet. It might be time to start running those ads again.
• Are fatbergs getting worse? They are, and the cause is clear. Water UK investigated this nearly a decade ago and concluded that wet wipes made up more than 90% of the material causing sewer blockages . As Consumer Reports points out in a very good new article Are Flushable Wipes Really Flushable?, 90% of wet wipes sold in the US are non-flushable. The fact that these two statistics from nearly a decade apart line up is not coincidental. What makes wet wipes so problematic is that they are usually made with plastic fibers, which do not break down like toilet paper. Instead, they become entangled with other garbage, especially other wet wipes making the journey from toilet to treatment plant. UK legislators pledged to ban them a few years ago, but it hasn't happened yet.

After reading this, you might clean it every day

The BBC asks: Are you cleaning your water bottle enough? "One study conducted in Singapore using boiled tap water – which should have killed most bacteria in it – found that bacteria populations can grow rapidly inside water bottles as they are used throughout an average day. On average they found that reusable bottles used by adults went from around 75,000 bacteria per milliliter in mid-morning to more 1-2 million per milliliter over the course of 24 hours."

Making Switzerland pristine is hard work

In the 1960s, the Swiss had some of the dirtiest water in Europe, with raw sewage and industrial waste flowing directly into bodies of water like Lake Geneva. Now, their cities boast pristine rivers and lakes. "In 1965, only 14% of the population was connected to a wastewater treatment plant. Today, it is 98%, and the country has a reputation for pristine swimming waters, sometimes referred to as its “blue gold” – and it’s all thanks to a complex network of sewage plants." The Guardian has a nice profile of the people who do the dirty work. Read From sewage and scum to swimming in ‘blue gold’: how Switzerland transformed its rivers.

Cybersecurity in water a growing concern

Did you know that only 20% of water and wastewater systems across the US have basic cyber protections? That's a distressing statistic. New proposed legislation might help as Cyberscoop writes in Water utilities would get cybersecurity boost under a bipartisan Senate bill. The goal of the new bill is to modernize and expand the Circuit Rider Program, which provides cybersecurity-related technical assistance to rural water and wastewater systems.

Is your local utility safe from cyberattacks? We've written about cybersecurity a lot on the One Water Blog:

• Are you prepared? We have a Cybersecurity toolkit for water utilities to adopt CISA, FBI and EPA guidance that also talks about the Circuit Rider program.
• What can utilities do differently? Some of the existing vulnerabilities can be explained by outdated processes around sharing files and log-in credentials, which made us wonder if cloud-based collaboration tools might be more secure. So, We asked a cybersecurity expert: Can the cloud help water utilities?
• Don't delay, secure it today: After digging into all of the research, it's hard not to conclude that it's only a matter of time before your water utility is hacked. But it's not inevitable. As Autodesk Chief Trust Officer Sebastian Goodwin wrote, Cybersecurity for water utilities isn’t a game of (bad) luck. It’s a game of skill.

Grab bag of water stories

• Water from fog: Did you know that fog can be a cheap and abundant source of fresh water, especially in remote dry regions? How does fog collection work, and where it is already being used? DW explains Where fog is helping against water shortages.
• 36 years later: "When I look at my toilet, I don't know if there's water in it anymore, it's so clear. And to pour it in your glass and just see it, it's amazing." Unsafe tap water is common in Newfoundland. This town just overcame a 1989 boil order.
• From joy to despair: A few weeks back, NYC citizens expressed joy that There Was A Dolphin In The East River, with many wondering if dolphins were returning after many years because of cleaner waters. But then, sadly, a Dead dolphin washes up on NYC beach just days after pair dazzled in East River: “I actually thought that it was a great thing, given that the environment was getting cleaner, more sustainable. I know there have been some water cleanup efforts going around the New York City area. A dolphin washing up is extraordinarily sad for those prospects, because I guess this leads me to believe that the water maybe isn’t as clean as we think it might be."
• Color clues: Lakes worldwide are changing color, possibly due to human impact: "Significant changes in lake color can signal ecological disturbances, such as increased nutrient loads or other drivers affecting the physical and biochemical properties of lake water. The differences between regions were remarkable."
• Good goop? "Hopefully I didn't catch you right at lunchtime with this information, but the facts remain — there's a living slime monster lurking in a Toronto waterway." Would you believe that is actually a good thing and a sign of improved water quality? Read Disgusting blob of living slime found in Toronto's new engineered river.

The 'eye of the IJssel'

The IJsseloog is a bizarre-looking man-made island in the Dutch province of Flevoland which serves a unique purpose: waste disposal. How did they build it? How does it work? Why does it look like a robot eye? The YouTube channel What On Earth Is This? explains it all in a very interesting video, Why Does the Netherlands Have a Creepy Circular Island?

From the One Water Blog

In the last few weeks, we've been publishing blog posts about our new SuDS illustrations, and they've been getting a very warm reception on LinkedIn. They look very sharp, don't they!

We encourage drainage designers to use these illustrations to show clients and the community what you want to build, how it works, and why it's important. We still have a few more of these SuDS/LIDs/WSUDs/BMPs illustrations to release, but here's what we've already published:

• What are infiltration trenches and how do they work?
• How swales work – and why they’re an increasingly popular sustainable design option
• The benefits of porous pavement in drainage design
• How does cellular storage work for stormwater control?

A good RMP template to follow

Does your municipality need an RMP – a Rainwater Management Plan? In the UK, there are lots of examples to follow, but a relatively new document from Ireland stands out for its strong nature-friendly approach. We invited one of the contributors to the guidance, Anthony McCloy, to speak to our customers and share the knowledge that he has built up as a strong proponent of sustainable engineering systems. Read our blog summary or watch the video: Do you need a Rainwater Management Plan? This Irish manual provides excellent guidance.

How does InfoDrainage compare up to HydroCAD?

As makers of InfoDrainage, we’re obviously biased towards our own software, but we wanted to know how it compares to HydroCAD, so we asked our technical solutions team to review HydroCAD's own published chart of features and functionality and add a column for InfoDrainage to help us detail the similarities and differences between not just HydroCAD but other old stalwarts TR-20 and TR-55. You can see for yourself and even download a copy of the chart if you want in our post How does InfoDrainage compare to HydroCAD, TR-20 & TR-55?

We welcome Ridge

Autodesk is excited to partner with Ridge and Partners LLP, a leading UK built environment consultancy, to showcase how their civil engineering teams leverage InfoDrainage to streamline projects of all sizes — from small housing developments to large-scale infrastructure designs involving multiple developers. Even better, you can earn a CPD certificate of attendance. Sign up for the event, which will occur on 2 April at 1pm GMT.

Big things on the horizon

In the coming weeks, we'll be publishing a lot of interesting things on the One Water Blog, which we'll wrap-up for you in a big package in the next newsletter:

• ASCE Report Card: The American Society of Civil Engineers releases its Report Card on American Infrastructure only once every four years. How will each segment of the water industry be graded? Did the infusion of funding from the IIJA make a difference? Autodesk is sponsoring the report's release, and we'll have a wrap-up of all of the water-related grades.
• Global Launch: We're a few weeks away from the release of Autodesk's 2026 software versions. What's new? What's exciting? We'll have all the details of new features and functionality so our customers can hop in and start using the latest versions.

Doing our best to make every link matter.