Sewage flooding Cambs street for third day ‘going straight into the river’

A Cambridgeshire village street is flooded with sewage for the third day. Residents first noticed sewage coming out of a manhole in Harston on Tuesday morning (May 9).

Dr Rebecca Korb and Vince Blocke, who live and keep livestock in Button End, said they had reported the sewage to Anglian Water on Tuesday morning. They said they had been told someone would come and look at it but three days later sewage is still covering the street.

The flood covers the street and is several inches deep. Mr Blocke said: “I’ve had to tell a few people that actually that is not water on the road.

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“Somebody went charging through in a Land Rover. I said, ‘you do know that’s sewage? You’ve sprayed that all over somebody’s hedge, all in the front of their garden, all in the front of their house, and it’s not water – it’s sewage.'”

He said although there had been heavy rain this week, the street hasn’t always flooded after heavy rain. “Why can’t the place cope with a bit of rain?” he said.



The street is flooded by several inches
The street is flooded by several inches

Dr Korb said: “It’s coming down the road on both sides and that then goes straight into the river. People are having to drive through there and some people are even walking through there.”

An Anglian Water spokesperson said: “Following heavy rainfall this week, our teams are continuing to alleviate flooding in Button End by using tankers to remove the floodwater and a clean-up of the area will be carried out as required. There has been no environmental impact as a result of the flooding.

“Our teams work hard across the region to ensure our sewer network is running as it should and can take excess rain water away as quickly as possible. But flooding is often an extremely complex issue with many different owners for the drainage network such as highways, local councils and even private owners, as well as ourselves.

“We work with a range of organisations to tackle flooding, including lead local flood authorities and the Environment Agency, and we’re investing £100m over the next three years to improve our underground infrastructure across our region to protect the environment, homes and businesses from flooding.”

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Cambridgeshire Live – Environment