A raft of problems from heavy rainfall to dodgy plumbing have been blamed for sewage flooding issues in Holbeach.
Residents have seen their gardens flooded with sewage several times in the last few months, and have been battling to resolve the problem.
The record-breaking wet winter has added to the issue which started in 2018 and has seen residents installing raised vegetable beds to keep them free of sewage.
“We had the first issue in 2018 when Anglian Water were dealing with a ‘fatberg’ in Spalding Road. They did clean us up and compensated us with £400 for the stuff that was damaged, including our veggies in a ground level patch,” said Viv Quesnel of Northons Lane.
Her garden has been flooded again several times this year, with the water company cleaning up on March 4.
“It started in October last year when we called out Anglian Water, but they didn’t respond so my husband cleaned-up. In February we were in the same situation again and had all the month surrounded by sewage water and debris. It was disgusting,” she said.
David Henderson, of Fairfields, said he had the same problem.
“Every time we have heavy rain the toilets in our street back up so we can’t use ours for four or five days. We report this to Anglian Water and they come out and say there’s no problem.
“In February the sewage was coming out of the manholes and running down the drains in the street,” he said.
Both Mrs Quesnel and Mr Henderson said they had alerted district council member Tracey Carter and South Holland and the Deepings MP Sir John Hayes has also been notified.
Lincolnshire county council is due to be meeting with them on site next week.
A spokesperson for Anglian Water said there had been ten named storms since September with rain falling on already saturated land.
“In Holbeach, the extreme rainfall we’ve seen over the past few months means that we are seeing widespread infiltration of excess water into our sewer network,” she said.
There is also an issue with ‘misconnection’ where water that should be directed into the surface water drain is sent to the sewerage system causing infiltration.
A local technician reported ‘lots of misconnections in the Holbeach area’ which adds to the problem.
The misconnections to the network can contribute to surface water infiltration.
This is when household appliances are connected to the wrong network – usually the surface water network, which is often owned and operated by the local highways department, rather than being connected to the foul network owned and operated by water companies.
The Anglian Water team will be conducting further surveys in future.
“Our teams continue to work incredibly hard to keep our sewer network running despite
“Even without the extreme weather that we’ve seen this winter, surface water infiltration to the foul water network can occur any time it rains.
“It’s crucial that flooding is addressed by multiple agencies.”
“Our network is working in Holbeach as it should be, but the sheer volume of water we’ve seen over recent months from rainfall, flooded rivers and high groundwater finds its way into our network, meaning there is less capacity.
“It means that while our network is operating the best it can, there’s much less room for the sewage which can cause problems with flushing toilets, or using showers and washing machines,” she said.
The Environment Agency is responsible for groundwater and fluvial flooding.
“Responsibility for flooding and drainage requires response from many different organisations, businesses and landowners, and it will take a combined response from all involved to put together a plan to address the issue in the long term,” added the Anglian Water spokesperson.
