Bradford’s sewers have been under investigation over the last few weeks as Yorkshire Water’s team of undercover surveyors discovered what grime lurked beneath.

As part of the company’s work to help prevent incidents of internal flooding caused by blockages in sewers it is carrying out detailed surveys in areas surrounding Bradford city centre that are deemed hot-spots for blockages caused by people putting the wrong things down their toilets and sinks.

The surveying work involves Yorkshire Water’s teams checking about 17,890 properties for blockages, lifting 6,169 manholes to see whether the public sewers underneath are running freely and checking about 8,500 drains on customer properties to make sure there are no blockages.

Work also includes using high pressured water jets to clear out any blockages and, if needed, putting CCTV cameras down into the sewers to understand how severe a problem is and what needs to happen to prevent it in the future.

Yorkshire Water network technician Chris Bradshaw said: “Over the last year we have spent £750,000 searching for and clearing blockages right across the region.

“By carrying out these pro-active surveying activities we are aiming to help prevent any incidents of internal flooding occurring as a result of blocked sewers.

“Often the problem has been caused by people putting unsuitable items down their toilets and sinks – in the case of areas of Bradford, this was cooking fat."

  • Read the full story in Tuesday’s T&A