After yesterday’s diabolical weather of heavy down-pours the manhole cover adjacent to the beach area at Stonebridge Wild River Reserve has blown and raw sewage is pouring into the River Kennet for the second time this year. Anna Forbes, Senior Project Officer and Volunteer Co-ordinator, for Action for the River Kennet (ARK) immediately reported this to Thames Water. Nearly 24 hours later Thames Water have only responded with a text saying they would attend the site before 22.36 last night and that they would send another text announcing when they were on their way. No further text or visit has taken place.
Anna told Marlborough.news, “I did not receive a second text and nothing has been done. I’m assuming Thames Water got lost despite the fact I sent them the What3Words location. Ironically the What3Words location for the sewer lid is pollution.intention.fruit!
When the sewer lid blew in the January floods we had 11 days of sewage pouring from it into the River Kennet and the surrounding area. It took Thames Water 2 days short of a month before they attended the site. They then carried out a very basic clean-up.
Once again the whole area stinks and when river levels go down some of the sewage will just sit there.”
Anna is also concerned that the area is made clean and safe in time for the River Schools activities which will start soon. Over 2000 children from our local primary schools are booked to participate in the study days.
After the January floods ARK asked for the sewage lid near the beach area to be sealed, which would then allow another sewage lid which is in the meadow area to become the lid that blew open in flood conditions. Anna commented, “This would be the lesser of two evils. Having sewage in the meadow would be a better option as at least we could cordon off the area. However, we have been told that it is currently not possible for this to be done.”
Coincidentally, only last night Anna was on BBC News appealing to Thames Water to take action. “We’d like to see water quality being put above profit. We’d like to see people in towns and villages having their sewage treated and it being returned to the river after being treated so that we have healthy chalk streams and we have communities not walking through sewage on their streets.”
Thames Water claim in their text to Anna, “Pollution can have a terrible impact on our environment and the wildlife we share with it so we’ll get it fixed as soon as possible. And if necessary we’ll liaise with the Environment Agency.” ARK and all of us in Marlborough are still waiting.