Tankers have started removing raw sewage which flooded into a Norfolk village after heavy downpours led to flooding.
Councillor Ian Martin with a resident after tankers removed raw sewage from Yaxham (Image: Yaxham Parish Council)
Issues on St Peter's Close in Yaxham, near Dereham, have been ongoing since Wednesday, December 23 after flooding caused pumping stations to fail, with raw sewage backing up into people's homes.
Now Anglian Water has begun the clean-up with five tankers removing sewage and surface water from the affected areas.
An Anglian Water tanker and engineering van on site at St Peter's Close in Yaxham (Image: Yaxham Parish Council)
Breckland district councillor for the area Ian Martin has said he will work with Mid Norfolk MP George Freeman and Breckland Council leader Sam Chapman-Allen to make sure it does not happen again.
He said: "With this emergency hopefully being resolved, we will now need to get a plan in place to make sure that this does not happen again, and in the short term there are emergency measures in place if it does so as to get it sorted on the day.
"I will be liaising with George Freeman and Sam Chapman-Allen on a getting a virtual round-table discussion with Flagship and Anglian Water on this - and with Anglian Water on all the sewerage issues affecting residents in Yaxham and Mattishall."
He said they would also discuss how the town would accommodate 100 new properties in Yaxham when current infrastructure could not cope.
Anglian Water engineers were unable to reach one pump to repair it on Boxing Day as it was underwater, but promised to send a tanker to solve the issue.
After not hearing from the water supplier for three further days, residents were forced to use communal toilets and visit their neighbours to use facilities.
During the same period, there were further issues on Norwich Road where a pumping station was being overloaded.
At another pumping station on Paper Street in nearby Clint Green, Mr Martin said there had been reports of manhole covers spewing sewage and draining down the road towards the River Tud, with further reports of issues in nearby Mattishall.
An Anglian Water spokesperson said: “Due to the sheer amount of rainfall this has meant that water can’t drain away as quickly as it usually would. Now the rain has stopped, we will see the water start to subside.
"Once we are able to remove the excess waste water we will be able to restart the pumps at Yaxham to enable them to work as they normally would.”
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