Christmas dinner 'fatbergs' could cause flooding, warn water companies
Water firms are warning customers to think twice before pouring cooking oil down drains to avoid blockages and flooding.
Monday 12 December 2016 15:53, UK
Christmas dinner with all the traditional trimmings could lead to congealed cooking oil and grease blocking drains up and down the country, water companies have warned.
Engineers from Severn Trent Water have been digging tons of the greasy gunk - which sets in a solid mass known as "fatbergs" - out of sewers in the West Midlands.
It follows reports of flooding in Fairfax Street in Coventry in recent months.
The company - and others across the country - are warning customers to think twice before tipping cooking oil down the drain.
James Jesic, operations manager for Severn Trent, said: "It might seem harmless when you're doing it, but that grease quickly solidifies when it cools and sticks to the sides of our sewers, forming a concrete-like solid that attracts other debris, eventually causing a blockage.
"With no way through, the waste water backs up the system, coming out of drains and sewers in roads or even into homes - nobody wants a flooded house for Christmas."
The company is offering households free "gunk pot" fat-traps through its website, to store grease until it cools down - at which point it can be put in the bin.
Yorkshire Water is tackling the problem with its fat-vat scheme, launched in Bradford in 2014, which enables households to collect unwanted oil for use as bio-fuel.
The scheme, run with the Karmand community centre, has collected 3,000 litres of oil from 268 households since it started, and there are plans to expand it throughout the Bradford Moor district, covering up to 6,000 homes.
Yorkshire Water said 110,000 tonnes of used cooking oil is disposed of each year by UK households, which could power 110,000 homes with carbon-neutral electricity.