HIGHAMS PARK: Street flooded with raw sewage (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

4:45pm Monday 7th July 2008 in

A SEWER has burst flooding Highams Park with raw sewage.

The manhole burst in Larkshall Road, Highams Park, during the flash rainstorm which started around 2.30pm on Monday afternoon.

Raw sewage has started gushing into Larkshall Road, making a whole section of the road near the railway station unpassable on foot.

Motorists and even pedestrians are travelling through the flood, unaware that some of it is human effluent to a depth of up to 30cm.

Rain has started falling heavily again within the past ten minutes.

Workers at your local Guardian offices can no longer leave from two of the office's exits.

The normal staff entrance is completely blocked.

A Thames Water spokesman could not say when the problem would be fixed but said between 95 and 98 per cent of the water would be rainwater.

"People should still be careful. The sewers are designed to take both storm water and domestic waste away.

We try as hard as we can to keep them functioning but these drains are 150 years old." Thames Water deals with 60,000 blocked drains a year.

According to the company, 40,000 of these could be avoided if people did not pour waste grease and oil down the drain.

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