The UK has a large infrastructure of sewers and drains which transport sewage and rainwater to the wastewater treatment works. When there is a lot of heavy rain the sewers and drains sometimes overflow which cause flooding. The water companies who own the sewers spend millions of pounds per year on sewer and drain repairs. This is to try and alleviate the damage caused by flooding. Our commercial sewer and drain infrastructure is very old now. If you combine the age of the sewers and the population growth plus more stormy weather due to climate change then the outcome is going to be more flooding situations which require large tankers to help.
Case Study – Filta Group – Emergency Floodwater Pumping
We were recently contacted by the Filta Group https://www.filta.co.uk/ who supply, service and maintain stormwater pumping stations, individual pumps, floats and alarm systems to ask our availability to attend a local pub in Bristol. The pub had flooded due to the amount of rainfall in the area and a problem with the pumping station. Once the pumping station broke down the excess water could not be pumped away and it started to build up in the surrounding area. In order for them to repair the commercial sewer and drainage system they needed an enormous amount of water to be removed. At the time of the enquiry the customer had never used us before and had to set up an account. Once the account forms were back a few hours later, we swiftly dispatched a tanker at 4pm the same day to assist their engineers. When we arrived on site, we could see the extent of the damage. The pub is located next to a large green space alongside a lake which had filled to capacity and become a flood risk. Due to the location, the pub has its own flood defence system in place to prevent flooding but even that couldn’t stop the rainwater. The water had gone over the defence system and flooded into the pub and completely filled their cellar which became unsafe and unusable. Our driver arrived in a 4,000 gallon tanker to try and hold the levels back, that evening we took 2 x 4,000 gallons back to our own wastewater facility for treatment. The Andersons Waste Treatment facility is open for much longer hours than most wastewater treatment facilities which helps with flooding caused at night. After taking 8,000 gallons it came to light that we were going to be unable to clear all the water and the customer asked us to stop. We then rearranged another day to try again after the rainfall had stopped and the land had started to dry up. We removed another 4,000 gallons which gave the customer some breathing space to have pumps fitted by their engineers.
These sorts of problems are only going to increase as our infrastructure becomes more and more out of date, the storms increase in quantity and rainwater volume thanks to climate change and the water companies continue to underinvest in their facilities. With this in mind there will be a growing demand for commercial sewer and drain repairs as well as tanker companies who will be needed to remove the excess liquid waste. Please call Andersons Waste Management on 01454 222888 and we will do our best to sort out any liquid waste collections.
