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Thames Water has shifted almost 700 tonnes of wet wipes and fats from London’s sewer system over the past year.
The company cleaned more than 900 km of sewers in the capital and the Thames Valley, up 50 per cent from the previous year and shifted the debris that had formed into not only fatbergs but concretebergs.
The sewer cleaning programme took engineers a combined 11,000 hours to carry out the work using high power water jets and vacuums to move blockages.
Matt Rimmer, Thames’ head of waste networks, said: “While it isn’t the most pleasant of jobs, battling fatbergs and other blockages in our sewers is crucial in ensuring we’re able to safely take away the waste of millions of customers.
“Our engineers carried out a record amount of cleaning this year, but we have plans to go even further next year to keep our sewers flowing.”
He added the cleaning highlighted the importance of people only flushing pee, poo and toilet paper down the loo.
In Greenwich the team dislodged 183 tonnes of waste – the same weight as a passenger jet plant – from less than a kilometre of sewer.
Meanwhile under Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus more than 100 tonnes was removed. However, the longest job was in Waterloo Road, where engineers spent a combined 2,747 hours, or 114 days, clearing just under 100 tonnes of debris from a kilometre stretch of sewer.
To raise awareness of wet wipes that should not be flushed down the toilet, a ‘Fine to Flush’ mark has been developed for products that will safely breakdown in the sewer network.
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