Woman spends weeks inundated by sewage

Toilet troubles have been plaguing one social housing mother, who says her family has spent weeks surrounded by human faeces.

Toilet troubles have been continually resurfacing for one social housing mum, who says her family has spent weeks inundated by human faeces.

Kirsty Patterson from Lenah Valley said her plumbing problems started weeks ago, but she’s still waiting for Housing Tasmania to resolve the sticky situation.

Photos, which have been shown to The Mercury, show pools of human waste gathering in puddles in the backyard.

Several plumbers came around to her house to inspect the problem, however Ms Patterson said the pipes and still leaking raw sewerage and the toilet will not flush.

Toilet trouble: The Patterson house in Lenah Valley.

In the meantime, Ms Patterson said that she and her five children have resorted to using the public toilet in the local park.

When the public toilet is closed, the family forces their excrement down the toilet with a plunger and disposes of their used toilet paper in the bin.

She said it had been a challenge trying to teach her children how to dispose of their used toilet paper, since four out of five children have an intellectual disability.

Toilet trouble: The Patterson house in Lenah Valley.

Ms Patterson said most of the children’s toys were now unusable and were lying in a smelly heap in the backyard.

“It was all over the kids’ pool toys, over the blow-up pool, over their plushies, their gum boots, their pool toys,” Ms Patterson said.

“Whatever was in the backyard got hit.”

She said the stench was overpowering all throughout the house, which has poor ventilation due to several jammed doors and windows that are unable to open properly.

Ms Patterson said she cleaned the outside as best she could, but that toilet paper pulp was still strewn on the driveway.

When some workmen came to clear up the rest, Ms Patterson said they told her that they were very familiar with that particular house.

Toilet trouble: The Patterson house in Lenah Valley.

A Housing Tasmania spokesman said they take all requests for maintenance “seriously” and would act quickly to resolve them.

“Housing Tasmania contractors have already responded to each of the plumbing issues reported by the tenant and visited the property earlier this week,” the spokesman said.

“To also ensure the additional complaint is examined, a camera inspection work order was made on the 1 September 2021 to inspect and provide a report on the drains at the property.

“If any outstanding issues are in fact found by the camera inspection, we would then quickly act to rectify them.”

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