The Metropolis

VIDEO: It's been raining, so raw sewage flows into the river Thames

Mike Pollitt | Tuesday 25 September, 2012 10:49

●

When it rains, as it just has, much of that rainwater gets washed into the sewage system. Too much, in fact, for the sewer pipes to hold. So the water, mixed now with raw sewage, overflows out into the rivers, the Thames or the Lee.

This video, by Pete Fry last year, shows the effect on the Thames at Chelsea. It’s disgusting. This happens 50 or 60 times a year. It doesn’t take much rain to do it.

Thames Water have a cleaned-up graphic explaining it all in their promotional material for the proposed Super Sewer.

The proposed super sewer is a good thing.

See also:

Londonist – Trips into the sewage system at Abbey Mills and the Fleet river

Filed in:

Snipe Highlights

Some popular articles from past years

  1. The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
  2. Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
  3. Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
  4. Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
  5. Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
  6. London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
  7. Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
  8. Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
  9. Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
  10. 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods