Sewage UK: Woman sloshes through 'vile' human waste 'with condoms' while walking dog at local park in Birmingham

A woman has claimed she ended up “paddling in sewage with toilet paper and condoms” at her “beautiful local park” when walking her dog. Eleri Wilson told NationalWorld she was walking her dog, Barney, through Bournville Park in Birmingham crossing over a small bridge across a stream and “looked down to see that I was actually standing in what looked like sewage.”

Ms Wilson said there was rainwater on the path and “a brown discharge was spreading into it” carrying “lumps of what looked like mashed-up toilet paper and I spotted a condom which made me realise with horror that I was standing in human waste”. She added: “My dog was paddling through it ahead of me. It made me feel really sick.”

Ms Wilson, a retired teaching assistant, told NationalWorld the incident happened a couple of weeks ago on 12 February in Bournville which she says is a “beautiful and popular part of Birmingham”. The 63-year-old said: “I grew up by the sea in the 60s when we often found human waste floating in the water but I never thought we would once again become the 'Dirty man of Europe' after years of clean water.” She added that what she saw “is a health hazard” and “the sewage scandal is just awful”.

She said there was water on the path anyway due to heavy rain but she “didn’t immediately notice” what she was “sloshing through”. On 16 January Bournville Park Facebook group posted on the social media platform that there have been “regular hazardous sewage spills".

On 23 January the group posted an update that the water firm “will fit a 'smart' monitoring device in the underground tank this week which will warn them when water levels are rising to unsafe levels" after heavy rain in the region. The Facebook group posted that the water firm "promised to keep us informed about action they are taking".

Emma Hulme, Severn Trent catchment lead, said the firm is "really sorry for the flooding that has been experienced in Bournville Park recently." She added: “Our teams are working hard to determine the cause of the flooding and have been carrying out CCTV surveys, cleansing the pipe, and they have also made some adjustments to a flood prevention device, helping to reduce the risk of flooding as we continue to look for a long-term solution. We want to assure everyone that it’s our priority to get to the bottom of this issue, and communicate our findings with the local community as soon as possible."