Calls for compensation after London homes flooded with sewage
An MP is calling for Thames Water to compensate residents in west London after part of a wall in one of the largest sewage works in the UK collapsed, and homes and gardens were flooded with untreated sewage.
Residents living along the Duke of Northumberland’s River in Isleworth had gardens and homes flooded as foul-smelling water poured down the waterway on Friday.
Pictures taken by local people showed part of the wall of the Mogden sewage treatment works had been breached.
Thames Water said in a statement they believed that the brick wall to the sewers that run alongside the Duke of Northumberland’s River “collapsed” and “this caused diluted wastewater to enter the river”.
Anna King, who lives in Mill Plat Avenue, said the flood was sudden and foul-smelling.
“The river came up incredibly quickly. It engulfed the bottom of our garden and rushed up into the kitchen. It smelled strongly of sewage.”
The Duke of Northumberland’s River is an artificial waterway, which has no storm outlets from Thames Water feeding into it. The breach in the wall at the sewage works appeared to have happened without Thames Water realising. Calls to the Thames Water emergency line by the London fire brigade on Friday as the flooding took place were not answered, said Ruth Cadbury, the MP for Brentford and Isleworth.
More serious flooding was averted when Topher Martyn, from the estate staff at nearby Syon House, used his keys to open a sluice gate run by the Environment Agency, allowing the excess water to flow away and averting more widespread flooding.
Cadbury said: “I want residents who had sewage flow through their property and gardens to have a full clean-up by Thames Water and compensation.
“Thanks to the quick thinking of local residents an even worse disaster was averted. Yet Thames Water didn’t even know the leak had happened and no alert was made. Thames Water have some really serious questions to answer in respect of this shocking incident.”
The Environment Agency said: “We are aware of the incident on the Duke of Northumberland’s River at Mogden sewage treatment works.
“We are investigating the causes of the discharge – which is not permitted – and are unable to comment further until our investigation is completed.”
Mogden sewage treatment works is one of the largest in the UK. It opened in 1935 and treats wastewater from a population equivalent of 2.1 million.
Thames Water said the recent snow and heavy rain had caused large amounts of grit and silt to enter the inlets at the sewage works, clogging up the filters and leading to sewage wastewater to back up into the sewers, which were flowing unusually high on Friday afternoon.
“While we do not have any pipes that normally enter the Duke of Northumberland, our sewers do run next to it and at one point are separated by bricks.
“We believe that due to the high levels in the sewer, some of this brickwork collapsed and this caused diluted wastewater to enter the river. We did notice the breached wall but couldn’t do anything about it until we had cleared the grit.
“The site manager said the amount of flow coming in was unprecedented. This is why the level kept rising and ultimately pushed through.”
Thames Water added that an investigation was under way, and until this was completed it “could not say for certain” whether the breach caused the flooding as the river was already very high due to the weather.
The company said it was offering a clean-up for those affected by the flooding.