A ‘fatberg’ the size of two blue whales has been found under a town in Essex.
‘Fatberg’ weighing 200 tons discovered under Essex town. A water company has shared images of it. The ‘fatberg’, 200 tons of unflushable waste, was discovered under Southend-on-Sea.
It was cleared from 80kms of sewage piping during a four-month operation.
The work was completed this week by Anglian Water after starting last December. They stated that some of the pipes were 85% blocked by unflushable waste. They urged the public to just flush the three P’s (paper, pee, and poo).
Other household waste products such as cotton buds and sanitary items should be placed in a bin. Officials unbelievably found other items in the ‘fatberg’ such as toys, tools and concrete.
Amazingly a kitchen cooking utensil was also discovered. Oil, grease and fat were also culprits in the blockage with pumps having to be cleared of 15 tons of fat at the pumping station.
Water recycling network efficiency manager for Anglian Water, Ben Hatfield-Wright, said “We have been astounded by the amount of unflushables found in Southend-on-Sea. In addition to the wet wipes and sanitary products which we find are the usual culprits for blockages we also found concrete, tools, toys and kitchen utensils.”
Sensors are now being installed across the network to monitor the flow levels enabling the pipes to be kept clear. This means issues will be identified before they cause a problem.
Advice from Anglian Water said that oils, grease and fat should not be flushed but kept in containers for re-use. Also they asked people to make sure plates were scraped before washing them.