High hopes for flooding solutions
Tuesday December 1, 2009
Basement sewer flooding could be a thing of the past after Thames Water was given the green light to increase bills to pay for sewer improvement works.
H&F residents grilled Thames Water officials about plans to increase the capacity of local sewers, at a public meeting on Monday (30 November), after water regulator Ofwat announced inflation busting water bill rises to pay for the measures.
Once again concern was raised over the Tideway Tunnel or so-called “super sewer” by Raj Bhatia, Chairman of the Stamford Brook Residents Association, who distributed maps showing the indicative size of the main construction site (20,000 sq. metres) which could well be located around any one of Thames Water’s trial hole investigation sites along the river.
Up to now Thames Water’s policy priority has been dominated by the ambition to save overflows into the river than rather to reduce the risk of basement foul flooding.
Some residents – especially in Askew Road, Boscombe Road, Greyhound Road and Hammersmith Grove – have seen their basements flooded three of four times since 2004.
Now local people, along with millions of Thames Water customers across London, face water bill rises 3 per cent more than the cost of living. In today’s prices, the move will see an average bill rise from £303 to £313 between next year and 2015.
Cllr Nicholas Botterill, Cabinet Member for Environment, “The bad news is Thames Water customers are being hit with above inflation water bill increases in the middle of a recession. However, the good news is Thames Water say this additional income allows them to build the Counters Creek Flood Alleviation Scheme – which they say will minimise basement flooding locally.”
Thames Water say the earliest they can start building the Counters Creek tunnel, which is the long-term solution to basement sewer flooding, is 2014.
So, as a short-term solution, 600 ‘at risk’ homes will have flap valves – known as Flooding Local Improvement Projects (FLIPS) – installed. The FLIPS prevent sewage ‘back-surging’ in to basements in times of heavy rain and will be installed in selected properties from June 2010.
However, the council is concerned that Thames Water has admitted that there are 1,400 properties on their flooding risk register and computer modelling shows potentially 7,500 properties at risk of a ‘1 in 10 year flooding event’.
Cllr Botterill continues, “In the short-terms Thames Water are going to solve less than half of the basement flooding problems with flap valves – which is far from ideal. The council is keen to know how Thames Water plan to pick the properties that will be deemed priority areas.”
In the longer term, Thames Water say the capacity of the Counters Creek sewer network needs to be increased to solve the vast majority of basement sewer flooding in the area.
Counters Creek is an old tributary of the Thames, which the Victorians incorporated into the sewer system and now flows underground. The Counters Creek sewer network handles the majority of the borough’s storm water and sewage, as well as a large amount of storm water from as far away as Camden and Brent. The lack of capacity in the current system means that sometimes foul water ends up flooding low-lying properties.
By constructing new sewers the capacity of the network will be increased, which will take upstream storm water away from the Counters Creek network and thereby reduce the risk of flooding. The £440 million scheme will take a minimum of nine years to develop and build.
A Thames Water spokesman said: “It is very good news that Ofwat has approved funding for this essential work. We can now develop the long term strategic solution, as well as deliver short-term mitigation measures, to help alleviate sewer flooding in the Counters Creek area.”
If you have been flooded REPORT IT NOW by calling Thames Water on 0845 920 0800. For more information on the Counters Creek scheme visit: www.thameswater.co.uk/counterscreek (opens new window).
