A so - call “ fatberg”—a tightly congealed mass of fat , wet wipe , diapers , and rubber — is blocking a incision of London ’s square-toed - era sewerage net . It could take calendar week for utility gang to remove the horrific lot , which , if not removed , could have raw sewage to slop onto London ’s street .
Such are the perils of maintaining an age sewage system . This awful mess formed in a Victorian - era burrow in London ’s Whitechapel district , and it ’s ten times bigger thanthe one determine in Kingston back in 2013 , according to Thames Water , the London utility that now has to pick up this sorry mess . The disgusting blob , with an figure free weight of 143 tonne ( 130 metrical tons ) , is bring forth by the steady accumulation of thing that should n’t be flushed down London ’s toilets .
Our version of a walk tour of London : see for yourself the monster#Fatbergeveryone ’s verbalise about : pic.twitter.com / LNd81wAliO
— Thames Water 💧 ( @thameswater)September 12 , 2017
Matt Rimmer , head of Thames Water ’s waste internet , says the fatberg is nearly rock solid .
“ This fatberg is up there with the biggest we ’ve ever seen . It ’s a total monster and read a deal of men and machinery to remove as it ’s set heavily , ” state Rimmer in a argument . “ It ’s basically like test to break up concrete . It ’s frustrating as these situations are totally avoidable and induce by productive , oil and grease being washed down sinks and wipes flushed down the loo . ”
We ’ve shown you what happens when fat & wipes go down the drain . We ’ve asked you to bin it . But do you bang how ? Watch this space!#FatTrappic.twitter.com / cLq7GkWYhN
— Thames Water 💧 ( @thameswater)September 11 , 2017
The mass is currently deflect a reaching of Victorian sewer that ’s 820 feet ( 250 meter ) long , longer than the distance of two football field , which , wow . The sewer itself is just 47 inches gamy and about 28 inches wide , have it particularly vulnerable to clogging .
Work began last week to take away the mass — an unenviable effort that could take upwards of three weeks to complete . gang consist of eight prole are using in high spirits - power jet hoses to bump up the mass before sucking it out with tankers . On a typical Clarence Day , these intrepid worker — cover from head to toe in protective equipment — are capable to remove about 20 to 30 tons , which is then transport to a recycling site in Stratford .
Each calendar month , Thames Water spends about £ 1 million ( US$ 1,328,000 ) clearing such blockages in London and Thames Valley sewerage . The utility has introduce a “ Bin it — Don’t Block It ” crusade to discourage its customers from flushing problematic items down the toilet . This information campaign is all fine and well , but what would really be efficient is having the guilty London bathroom flushers perform this wretched extraction work themselves . That would take ‘ em .
[ Thames WaterviaBBC ]
CitiesPollutionScienceSewage
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