A WATER company has unveiled £15million worth of “revolutionary” technology it hopes will tackle the scourge of fatbergs and reduce flooding in people’s homes.
Southern Water is using smarter sewer technology in its “battle against pollution” which will alert its control to the risk of areas of the network becoming blocked.
Monitors will communicate digitally with Southern Water’s operational control centre where technicians are warned about potential blockages forming long before any risk of pollution spill from a manhole, or flooding directly into homes, schools or businesses.
Until now the sewer network has not been “intelligent” and Southern Water has relied on customers to flag incidents.
Most sewer blockages are caused by “unflushables” such as wet wipes and plastics, Southern Water said, as well as fat, oil and grease gathering in pipes.
These can lead to “environmentally damaging” flooding outdoors as well as flooding inside homes and properties.
Southern Water said it pulls more than 5,000 tonnes of wet wipes and other plastic out of its sewers every year, enough to fill a line of eight-foot skips five miles long.
It also said 80 per cent of pollutions are caused by sewer blockages from wet wipes, fats and oils.
In a bid to reduce this happening, 22,000 monitors across high-risk areas of the 39,500 km sewer network have been installed.
Southern Water hopes the artificial intelligence technology will cut pollution incidents by up to 40 per cent, 500 fewer internal floods (inside properties) between now and 2025 and 7,000 fewer external floods (outside properties) during the same period.
It said future measures to reduce more incidents would include increasing the resilience of pumping stations by having extra generators to avoid spills occurring due to power outages.
The company said the technology has only just become “economically viable”, with each monitor now costing £300 rather than around £1,000.
Alex Saunders, Southern Water’s head of wastewater networks, said: “We already have a good record on cutting pollution from sewers thanks to our network protection team.
“There is also growing awareness among customers that wet wipes and other unflushables combine with fat, oil and grease, incorrectly disposed of down drains, to form fatbergs.
“These block sewers and can cause wastewater to back up the system.
“This revolutionary technology will mean we can respond proactively instead of waiting for seers to block.
“Spills from manholes are ugly, unpleasant and damage the environment.
“Internal sewer flooding is incredibly distressing.
“We believe the deployment of this system will have a real impact on both of these types of incidents.”
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