Thames Water Runs Fatberg Awareness Campaign

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After 747 sized mass of congealed fat was found under Shepherd's Bush Road

Thames Water, the company responsible for London’s drains, is running a campaign to raise awareness of fatbergs.

Adverts on billboards and bus stops, urge customers to "bin it – don’t block it" to prevent fatbergs causing sewer flooding.

The campaign comes after the discovery last month of a Boeing 646 sized fatberg lurking under an 80 metre stretch of Shepherd's Bush Road.

It took a week for a team of sewer experts to break up the revolting mass, made up of congealed fat, wet wipes and other assorted litter.

Sewer operations manager for West London, Trevor Hennessey says: " Absolutely no one wants to have sewage overflowing into their home. It’s disgusting, distressing and completely avoidable.

" The sewers serve an important purpose - they are not an abyss for household rubbish. They were only designed to carry water, toilet tissue and human waste. Anything else will block them.

" Cleaning pots and pans with washing up liquid simply does not breakdown cooking fat and oil for good. It goes down the drain easily enough, but when it hits the cold sewers, it hardens into disgusting ' fatbergs' that cling to wet wipes and cause blockages in pipes."

Thames Water is also writing to customers in the worst affected streets and providing them with free "fat traps" to collect used cooking oil in.

In addition the company is offering to pay the travel costs of 100 primary schools across West London so pupils can visit the company’s education centres at sewage works in Slough and Rickmansworth to learn about the water cycle and protecting the sewer system.

September 29, 2014