odd argentina plumbing bathroom drains

[edwardh1]

I went to Argentina and stayed in two different, 4 star, relatively new hotels. both had similar bath rooms, with a 6 inch square floor pit , about 3 inches deep, between the toilet and the bidet, covered by a metal grate with holes in it. if you ran the shower, or the sink, the water ran into the floor pit from drain lines. The toilet did not put water into it, but THE BIDET DID?
Seems that would be putting really dirty waste water into an open area. Would this be code compliant in the US? Or do they consider the bidet to put out the same level of contaminated water as a shower?
whats the purpose of this thing?

[Terry]

That would not be code compliant in the US.
It may be their version of an open cleanout and floor drain combination.

There are many things that I see South of the border that don't make any sense.
But hey, it's not like they are drinking the water down there either.

The US has the best water in the world. It's what separates us health wise from many countries.

[hj]

That would NOT meet the code requirement for " a trap for every fixture", plus it would fail for other reasons also.

[edwardh1]

they had traps on the sink

[hj]

Well, either they were then "S" traps or the vents were either completely useless OR conduits for sewer gas into the bathroom.

[edwardh1]

what I meant to say was the sink had a p trap under it I could see. dont know about the shower (tile floor over concrete in a hotel, or the bidet (maybe a bowl trap).
I wonder if they send toilet water somewhere else different from the shower/sink/bidet water

[hj]

A "P" trap without a vent becomes an "S" trap. If it had a vent, AND that vent was tied into the toilet piping, then the vent became a conduit for sewer gases into the room. But, from your description, the floor drain trap isolates the sink, etc., from the drain system so the trap under the sink was cosmetic, redundant, and nonfunctional. Using a separate drain for the toilet is a possibility, but that has NOTHING to do with draining everything else into the floor drain.