Raw sewage pouring out, Thames Water won't help, HELP!!!

BertieUK

warehouse wrote: »

Rang the local council environmental health. Not interested unless there is a serious environmental issue. I mentioned the canal at the bottom of the garden and suddenly they took notice, and will call Thames Water now but otherwise they said it's not their responsibility since late 2011..

Smells like its also a political issue of more Government cuts to our services.

Regards

BobUK

warehouse

Well now we're getting some action.

To recap, today I rang and have had the local paper over taking photographs, I contacted every important person at Thames Water that I could find contact details for, I contacted my local council environmental dept and I emailed my local MP.

In the last hour I've had so many phone calls from Thames Water bending over backwards to help that it's almost embarrassing. I've got a CCTV unit, a specialist, an engineer and the large lorry cleaning unit on their way over here NOW. Obviously I'll take pictures and update as necessary.

As my Wife just said to me, we shouldn't have to become pains in the backside to get this horrific issue fixed properly and someone to take responsibility for it, but there you go.

Craftyscholar

Result:T

But as your wife said, it shouldn't have got to this stage. :mad:
The words 'raw sewage' should have been enough to get them out - and staying out till the problem was sorted.

warehouse

They've sorted it!

The problem was a massively blocked neighbour drain, well 2 of them actually. Because the main sewer runs under our garage, everyone assumed, (wrongly), that we connected directly to the sewer. Once the monster lorry had completely cleared the main sewer and the drain levels hadn't dropped, they knew there was another step involved.

The supervisor knocked at the higher up neighbours and asked if they had any manhole covers. They had 2 hidden away under some decking, (luckily with access). As soon as they lifted the covers there were literally mountains of ****! It's taken them about an hour and a half, but they've cleared them out and found the blockage. We connect over the main sewer to the uphill neighbour, then back down to the main sewer. The pipe from the neighbours sewer to the main sewer was blocked, and the lowest exit point was......our drain!

As the supervisor said, the very first engineer on Sunday should have worked it out, but he told me the engineers are under great pressure to NOT spend more than 30 minutes per job, and that is exactly where the problem lies. As it turns out the issue is most definitely Thames Water's responsibility, but the way they have been today has been excellent. If we had received this level of excellence on Sunday then Thames Water and ourselves would have had a lot less hassle.

I really appreciate all the help and support on this thread. It was such a good place to be able to vent as well. Thank You.

abwsco

Glad to read you've got a result:)

BertieUK

warehouse wrote: »

As the supervisor said, the very first engineer on Sunday should have worked it out, but he told me the engineers are under great pressure to NOT spend more than 30 minutes per job, and that is exactly where the problem lies. As it turns out the issue is most definitely Thames Water's responsibility, but the way they have been today has been excellent. If we had received this level of excellence on Sunday then Thames Water and ourselves would have had a lot less hassle.

It is a great shame that these large companies are more concerned with cutting their overheads, and giving stress to their Engineers, that they completely forget about their duties to the customers and the heath issues involved.

I am so pleased that you have 'finally' resolved your massive problem, your family must be stressed out by now. This forum is such a great place to share your problems and vent your feelings.

Regards

BobUK

gayleanne

I had sewerage pouring out of the manhole last Thursday it was pouring out like a river, the water board (Welsh Water) came out straight away spent 4 hours leaving at 10pm that night clearing the drain, the next morning at 8am they were back, they cleaned all my patio up, washed down the garden furniture and disinfected everything.

The only thing they couldn't do was clear the waste from the flower beds and grass, today I had two gardeners turn up, they relaid grass on the infected areas, scrapped up the old bark from the flower beds, and took all the infected stone chippings away, they put more chippings down around the fence, and bark around the flower beds, and left my garden looking better than it was before the sewerage leak, and I didn't have to pay a penny.

I am also on a water meter, when we moved into this house the bill was £69.00 a month, there are only two of us in a 3 bed house, so I asked for a water meter, now I only pay £14.50 per month I acan't praise them highly enough.

Different water boards obviously have different ways of working.