A couple had a familiar feeling of dread when they heard their downstairs toilet gurgle after the recent heavy rain – it meant they could no longer use it, again.
Heather and David Howarth in Lodge Road, Hurst, are just two victims this week of the problems at the sewage pumping station in Broadwater Lane (the A321) near the Hurst/Twyford border.
Mrs Howarth said: “Every time there’s an excessive amount of rain we expect this. We wait for the gurgling from the loo.”
The couple fear that their 6ft deep manhole, which should be empty, may fill to the top one day, spilling over into their garden. They also worry their toilet may spill over into their house.
Two hundred new homes have been proposed for a field near them.
“It will only get worse if more estates go up. They need to spend money on a new pumping station,” added Mr Howarth.
Another Lodge Road resident Liz Chaderton, an artist, said: “When this happens we can’t use our downstairs toilet or the washing machine. We’ve had problems here probably seven or eight times in 24 years. The pumping station is not fit for purpose.”
In the past mobile toilets were installed on Martineau Green for residents who could not use their own. Two years ago sewage flooded up out of manholes into residents’ gardens.
Hurst’s Wokingham Borough councillor Wayne Smith told Thames Water’s chief executive in 2021: “It is my understanding that foul sewage flooding largely arises from a lack of repair and replacement of the existing infrastructure, and an increase in fluvial and surface water flooding, together encouraging flood waters to inundate the foul sewage system following heavy rain.
“Unfortunately, properties in Hurst, particularly along Broadwater Lane, Lodge Road and the surrounding area, have been experiencing this problem since 2008.”
He added that periods of prolonged rainfall meant many residents were unable to use toilets, sinks and showers due to sewage water backing up into the foul sewage system. It was a health hazard.
He said the pumping stations needed to be replaced, sealed or raised out of the flood plain. The piped system and manholes susceptible to foul sewage flooding needed to be sealed off, to avoid flood waters overwhelming the system. He asked Thames Water to solve the problem.
Thames Water has been asked to comment on the recent problems and to say what action they will take to stop them happening again, but had not responded as we went to press.
