Southern Water: UK water firm warns public to 'only put three Ps down the loo' as unusual item blocks sewers

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Southern Water has warned the public to “only put three Ps down the loo” as an unusual item has been blocking sewers.

The water firm said that several items have blocked sewers previously including crowbars and cat litter but after exploring a sewer blockage in Shoreham it found another unusual item. Southern Water said its teams found stacks of sweet wrappers to be the cause of the problem. 

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Alex Saunders, Head of Wastewater Networks, said: “Fortunately my team located the blockage and cleared the sweet wrappers before there was any internal flooding. When we’re warning people to only put three Ps down the loo – poo, pee and paper – instead of ‘unflushables’ like wet wipes and sanitary products, we include sweet wrappers in that list."  

“The addition of more than 22,000 artificial intelligence monitors which detect when sewers in blockage ‘hotspots’ are backing up is changing the game and enabling us to get to far more blockages before the problem turns into a crisis."  The water firm said its sewer clearance team deals with 50,000 blocked wastewater pipes every year and the blockages are mostly caused by wet wipes in toilets, or fat, oil and grease down kitchen sinks. 

Southern Water has warned the public to “only put three Ps down the loo” as an unusual item has been blocking sewers. (Photo: NationalWorld/Kim Mogg)Southern Water has warned the public to “only put three Ps down the loo” as an unusual item has been blocking sewers. (Photo: NationalWorld/Kim Mogg)
Southern Water has warned the public to “only put three Ps down the loo” as an unusual item has been blocking sewers. (Photo: NationalWorld/Kim Mogg) | NationalWorld/Kim Mogg

It adds that sewer blockages are the most common cause of pollution incidents as it causes manholes to spill over into watercourses harming wildlife or wrecking gardens. In the worst cases, sewers back up and flood inside properties.   

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It comes as Southern Water is asking for the biggest proposed hike to water bills. It wants to hike customers bills by 84% between now and 2030. It argues that it needs to spend more on upgrading their pipes, sewers and reservoirs than originally planned, and therefore need bills to go up too.

Ofwat is due to make a final decision on bills increases on December 19, with companies going to the negotiating table with regulators before then. The regulator wrote: “We will consider this additional expenditure request as part of our final determinations”.

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