Pipe blockages blamed on fat put down sinks

More than a quarter of pipe blockages in one area of Leeds were caused by people pouring fat down their sinks.

Yorkshire Water's team of undercover surveyors found 84 blockages in Beeston – of which 23 were caused by fat solidifying in pipes after being poured down plugholes.

Sewers in the area have been under investigation as part of the company's work to help to prevent internal flooding caused by blockages in sewers.

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The firm is carrying out detailed surveys in areas like Beeston that are deemed hot-spots for blockages caused by people putting the wrong things down their toilets and sinks.

Chris Bradshaw, network technician at Yorkshire Water, said: "By carrying out these pro-active surveying activities we are aiming to help prevent any incidents of internal flooding occurring as a result of blocked sewers. Often the problem has been caused by people putting unsuitable items down their toilets and sinks – in the case of Beeston, this was cooking fat.

"On this occasion, a number of the blockages were on the customers' own private pipes and therefore the responsibility of the customer to clear. What we want to highlight to customers is that these types of blockages can cause sometimes devastating problems to customers' homes and by simply disposing of their fat in another way this can be easily prevented."

As part of the work Yorkshire Water's teams are inspecting over 6,250 customer pipes checking for blockages, lifting 1,500 manholes to see whether the public sewers underneath are running freely and checking around 3,000 gullies in the road to ensure there are no blockages. They are using high-pressure water jets to clear out any blockages and if needed, putting CCTV cameras down into the sewers.

Yorkshire Water is offering customers a chance to request free fat cake making kits that allow cooking fat to be recycled. They can be requested by visiting www.yorkshirewater.com/dirty.