An angry couple say the garden of their Bradford home has been “swimming” with raw sewage for more than two weeks.

The putrid water, almost knee-deep at times, contains human excrement, sanitary towels and dirty nappies, said fed-up Julie Waterhouse.

Her husband Adrian, 50, said the concreted, sloped back garden has a “lake” about 24ft by 15ft in size, which was “an inch” from flooding their semi-detached home in Haslemere Close, Holme Wood, at the weekend.

The couple said a drain just outside their garden had collapsed, sending waste spilling from a manhole on their property. It is also flowing round to their front garden.

Mrs Waterhouse, 48, said: “Half my back garden is covered in it. The smell is disgusting and I’ve had to shut all my windows.”

Mrs Waterhouse said Yorkshire Water has visited the house three times in the 17 days since the flooding started.

“It is like talking to a brick wall,” said Mrs Waterhouse, who added: “One assistant on the phone said that people’s homes that are flooded come first. I explained that in a matter of days my house would be flooded with human waste, but was told we had to wait our turn.

“It’s an absolute disgrace how they can leave something like this.”

Mr Waterhouse, who claimed there will be an inch of slurry left once the water has been cleared, has had to wade to their two lurcher dogs in kennels in the back garden and feed them.

The couple also said they have a two-year-old granddaughter who cannot use the garden when she visits.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Water said last night: “We would like to apologise to Mr and Mrs Waterhouse for the length of time it has taken us to resolve this issue.

“We have visited the site on numerous occasions over the past two weeks to remove blockages and pump water away, however, this has not been successful.

“As the drain is full of water it has not been possible to inspect it, but we now suspect part of the drain has collapsed. We will therefore have to dig down to repair the drain and have agreed to pump it out on a daily basis until the issue is resolved.

“This work is due to be completed this week.”