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Thames Water has stopped 117 million litres of wastewater from flowing into the environment by locating and correcting misconnected domestic appliances.
The company has helped householders find and fix incorrectly plumbed toilets, washing machines and dishwashers that flowed into surface water sewers and thus entered waterways.
Over the past five years the company has identified more than 8,000 misconnected appliances at thousands of properties across London and the Thames Valley. By ensuring these are properly connected to the sewer network the company said it has reduced the amount of potentially dangerous wastewater reaching watercourses by the equivalent of 47 Olympic swimming pools each year.
The company came under fire this weekend for the amount of wastewater discharged into the environment, with The Undertones singer and environmental campaigner Feargal Sharkey criticising Thames for its use of sewer overflows. Combined sewer overflows are essential to prevent flooding, however, because of population growth and urban creep their use is increasing.
Thames said it will ramp up its inspections with a further 1,000 focusing on London to avoid misconnections.
Stephen Barry, Thames’ environmental protection manager, warned of the danger to the environment as well as expensive repairs to householders. He said: “We’re pleased to have found so many of these misconnections over the past five years and helped owners fix them but we’re determined to keep doing more to ensure all wastewater is taken to our sewage works where it can be safely treated.”
Kitchen sinks were the most common misconnection, followed by washing machines, hand basins and appliances such as dishwashers, toilets, baths and showers.
The inspection visits highlighted other potential problems to householders such as blockages or defects either in the pipes or sewer itself.
CCW’s Water, Water Everywhere report last week showed a 15 per cent rise in external sewer flooding and internal floods up by 14 per cent year on year despite both falling over previous years. Thames – along with Wessex and Southern – however reported a fall in the number of homes flooded in 2019/20.
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