Blockage busters ‘crowbar in’ vital advice
Colleagues made an unusual find as they investigated a blocked sewer in Kent.
Our sewer clearance team deal with 50,000 blocked wastewater pipes every year – mostly caused by wet wipes in toilets, or fat, oil and grease down kitchen sinks.
But sometimes our teams get a surprise – ranging from bedsheets and a wardrobe of clothes to soft toys and even Christmas lights.
However, colleagues were left stumped when they investigated a blockage beside a pub in Tunbridge Wells, and found the cause of the problem was a wedged-in crowbar.
Alex Saunders, Head of Wastewater Networks, said:
“My teams have all come across weird and wonderful things inside sewers, but this was a new one on me.
“When we’re warning people to only put three Ps down the loo – poo, pee and paper – instead of unflushables like wet wipes and sanitary products, or to keep fat, oil and grease out their pipes, we never thought to include a crowbar in that list."
Sewer blockages are the most common cause of pollution incidents – causing manholes to spill over into watercourses harming wildlife or wrecking gardens. In the worst cases, sewers back up and flood inside properties.
Alex added:
“In this case it would appear someone has either thrown or dropped it down a drain cover – but the knock-on effect would have been very serious had we not reached the blockage.
"This was a case which demonstrated how much we have improved our response to blockages in recent years, resulting in a regionwide fall in overall pollutions.
“The addition of more than 22,000 artificial intelligence monitors which detect when sewers in blockage ‘hotspots’ are backing up is changing the game and enabling us to get to far more blockages before the problem turns into a crisis."
But with more than 40,000km of sewers, it’s absolutely vital that our communities understand not to put the wrong things down loos or sinks – and if there are problems, that they are reported as quickly as possible. Find out more about blockages and how to prevent them.