Viva Brighton Issue #57 November 2017

MY SPACE
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Brighton Sewers
Following the ‘three Ps’
“Brighton’s sewer is huge,” says Sharon Holdstock,
Customer Engagement Officer at Southern Water.
“Ordinary sewers are about four inches wide, so
these are an absolute anomaly. When the Victorians
built them, they were planning for the next 500
years.” And yet, she explains, despite the fact we’re a
long way off reaching this time limit, blockages are
becoming more and more common throughout the
city’s sewer network.
Part of the problem is the increased concentration
of waste coming through the smaller pipes
which connect our homes to the large underground
sewers. “A lot of the buildings in Brighton would
originally have been owned by one household and
they would probably only have had one toilet,”
Sharon says, “whereas now, most of those Victorian
buildings have been split into apartments, and quite
often each of those apartments has two toilets in it,
so the capacity that the sewers are taking is significantly
higher than when they were built. If people
don’t stick to the ‘pee, poo and paper only’ rule,
that’s when we start getting the issues.” The ‘Three
Ps’ are part of a campaign by Southern Water to
educate the public on what should be flushed down
the toilet and what should not.
“One of the most common problems is wipes,”
Sharon explains, “whether that be make-up wipes,
baby wipes, cleaning wipes – even the ones that say
‘flushable’ should not go down the toilet.” As the
waste travels through the sewer network, it flows
through sections she calls ‘egg-shaped barrels’ –
lengths of tunnel which are narrower at the bottom
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