So far this year, Anglian Water has cleared over 13,565 blockages caused by wrongly flushed items, as well as build-up of fats, oils and greases (FOGs).
Clearing the blockages is essential to helping protect the environment from potential sewer spills and clearing the network, making more room in the sewers during flooding.
Data collected by Anglian Water shows that people across the East of England wrongly disposed of 2,800 tonnes of unflushable items last year creating avoidable blockages.
The water company said these are reducing the capacity of the region’s sewers at the wettest time of year, increasing the risk of flooding.
The mound of rubbish – which is largely made up of wet wipes, cotton buds and sanitary items – has been filtered out at various Water Recycling Centres (WRCs) over the past year and is equivalent to the weight of around 28 blue whales.
Regan Harris from Anglian Water said:
"We work in one of the flattest regions in the country which is most vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather. We clear tens of thousands of blockages a year, 80 per cent of which are completely avoidable. But aside from being costly and time consuming to deal with, they also greatly reduce the capacity of our sewers and mean the risk of flooding or pollution is greater.
“While we’re significantly investing in improving our network to cope, avoiding preventable blockages like this can make all the difference in keeping our sewers flowing freely.”
Wet wipes continue to be one of the most commons cause of problems in the sewer and are by far the worst culprit – however, sanitary items, cottons buds and cooking fats can also cause problems.
The data comes as the annual awareness campaign Unblocktober began earlier this month – something that Anglian Water has been supporting since 2019.
The campaign is aimed at improving the country’s drains, sewers, watercourses and seas by educating members of the public on what not to put down their drains.
For more information about Unblocktober including a full list of items you shouldn’t be flushing, visit: www.unblocktober.org
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