A Southern Water team is ‘investigating’ as a stream of faeces and toilet paper has overflowed from a drain by Margate Police Station and is running down Fort Hill towards Turner Contemporary today (March 22).
The foul smelling waste is running at volume into the road.
Southern Water has been alerted by The Isle of Thanet News, Thanet councillor Helen Whitehead and concerned members of the public.
In a social media post Cllr Whitehead said: “I have contacted Southern Water regarding the river of sewage currently flowing down Fort Hill Road, along with a request for a detailed explanation of how exactly they will be cleaning up human biological waste that is currently being spread across Margate.
“Nothing about the current state of our sewage systems is acceptable, and an extensive biological clean up, as well as a full explanation of how this happened, and how it will be prevented in future, is essential.”
Fellow Margate councillor Rob Yates said the team now on-site says the cause is from wet wipes.
Cllr Yates said: “They say it’s from wet wipes which are flushable, but get stuck in the sewer system causing a backlog.”
A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “At 12:42pm on Sunday, we were alerted to an overflowing manhole in Fort Hill, Margate. Our team attended the site promptly and identified a blocked sewer as the cause of the overflow.
“We cleared the blockage and removed all solids that had spilled onto the road as a result. The area has now been cleaned, and the network is operating normally once again.
“This blockage was caused by wet wipes and cooking fat – a major issue for sewage companies and their customers. We have 34 000 advanced monitors across our network which use AI to detect blockages forming so we can step in before this kind of pollution happens.
“Last year we intervened early more than 4000 times thanks to this system. But 70 per cent of blockages are preventable if only pee poo and paper go down the loo and cooking fat is disposed of in the bin.”
And yet the bills go up and the shareholders get richer
They haven’t paid any dividends payments since 2017. Not defending them but to say their shareholders are getting richer isn’t true.
They are getting ripped off as well-the boss of course gives himself obscene bonuses despite his abysmal performance.
Southern Water CEO Lawrence Gosden saw his total pay package roughly double to £1.4 million for the 2024-25 financial year, despite the company facing high debt, rising customer bills, and a regulatory ban on performance-related bonuses. The package included a £500,600 salary and a £691,200 long-term incentive payment, sparking criticism from ministers.
yes i was incorrect not shareholders, the bosses and their renamed bonus to avoid falling foul of the government stopping those
If you look close enough you can see a few turds from Thanet District Council
All wet wipes are flushable in that they’ll physically go down the loo, but most are not designed to be flushable and clog up drains quite easily. Southern water should do some videos of the waste they clear off of the bandscreens at northforland pumping station. Might make people appreciate how much stuff goes into our sewers that should’nt. And that’s before you consider the oils and fats that are tipped into the system.
Hardly reasonable to expect SW to continually inspect every pipe just in case there’s the chance of a blockage, it’d cost absolutely huge amounts. Much better to react to problems when they occur.
Don’t be fooled by cheap imitations
The first time in years that Margate hasn’t stunk of dope.
Comment of the day!
NO – this is actualy art , its the latest offering from the turner / emin centre , and no doubt it will sell for several million pounds.
You mean The Turder, but yes, art with a capital “F”!
Your posts are becoming worse by the day.
You and Mad world are the pits.
Let’s be clear. Ou water treatment and supply service is unfit. It began with the Tory privatisation and continued with Labour’s policy.
It may be wet wipes but if that’s such an issue why do we alow “flushable” products that aren’t flushable? A role for trading standards and government regulation?
But let’s recall, when Southern Water blame raw sewage dumping on heavy rain, there is no rain!
The system is unfit for us but perfect for those who make millions out of the utility. Starmer, and our MP, stated they would prosecute Directors, not just fine the company – haven’t seen any of that yet.
people who flush wetwipes need educating, or stop being lazy, its known they clog up toilets,drains and enter sewers , yet morons still flush these and sanitary towels, the rest you said i agree with
It says quite clearly on the packets that you can flush two at a time safely. Probably idiots shoving four or five down there at a go.
Some are flushable, some aren’t.
Stick with Andrex-can’t go wrong.
I don’t use any, I do handstands in the shower instead!
How about investigating TDC for all the 5 times overfilled bins on all the laybys on the A299 polluting the surrounding countryside.Every week it looks apalling from lack of emptying.Its embarrassing and hardly a good thing for tourism.
No one should be profiting from water. Dock the pay of the CEOs. Re-nationalise. Blaming wet wipes for this is pathetic.
Hi there for many years as the marine conservation society and sea champion we have tried to say to people please don\’t put too much paper and other objects down your toilets that would not block up drainage also the roadside drains around the district many are blocked where KCC are supposed to keep them clear once a year is not good enough I see some around Margate for ages
The word may ne FATBERG.
Heading to the Turner-will fit in just right with all the other crap in there then.
Councillor Yates, What are you doing? I presume you are there in your role as a local councillor (which is a job, be it voluntary, as you do get allowances) and not just to take advantage of the situation to get a publicity photo shot to prove you are actually doing something for the electorate. In future please demonstrate a good example to the community, when you have a photo taken, read the Streetworks Act (your legal requirements and obligations under the act) and wear class 3 PPE when standing on the carriageway, close to an open operational underground structure. I accept the roadworks barrier system panels deployed aren’t compliant with the law from the picture, by the operatives onsite, and I accept you may have entered the barrier system to get a “better photo” without permission. If I had been onsite in my day job (I do not work for this utility), I would have asked you to be compliant or remove yourself in your role as an elected member. This is not about your politics, but purely about everyone’s health and safety. Maybe the chief executive of the council, could build a business case for future training requirements to cover off the Streetworks Act, if you feel you may wish to act in this fashion going forward in the future?
Is this The latest art installation at the acclaimed Turder Centre !
More proof that water companies need to be renationalised
Southern water makes me tired.Their first action is to blame the public, their next on being found out is to blame agricultural run off.When finally they are pinned down kicking and screaming they admit a fault and blame the Victorians for having built the infrastructure in the first place.Less than 10% of the UK infrastructure is victorian.One only has to think a little to see why.Firstly there were two world wars which damaged that infrastructure so it had to be replaced, next was mass housing and road contruction which increased the available infrastructure considerably.Had we continued to renew and augment the infrastructure instead of financially engineering a huge transfer of money from the tax and bill payer to the shareholders, bondholders and executives of Southern and other water companies, we would not be where we are today.
For those who are niave enough to believe their bleating about not paying a dividend ,I would say they don’t need to, because Macquarie lends Southern water which it owns, money to allegedly do these works or for any other reason, and like what happened to Machester Utd or Thames water, a previous Macquarie victim, they leverage the assets and get their money back and some.
The putinesque excusers for Southern water and Macquarie, only cloud the situation, rather like the water Southern discharges, by blaming others, usually out groups they don’t like.
Look neither the Cllrs nor the public are responsibke for this, and if there is a probkem with wet wipes, we should legislate so that the under performing sewage infrastructure can cooe with it.
I rest my case my lord and good might!
I blame the wipes that run the computer!
Even the ones that are alleged to be ‘flushable’ should be avoided. They take longer to break down and can cause problems. Just flush toilet paper