Chichester resident calls on new sewage system instead of Southern water pumping waste into Lavant

SussexWorld

Chichester resident calls on new sewage system instead of Southern water pumping waste into Lavant.

Transcript

00:00 Originally the River Lavent was a lovely, very clear chalk stream, but in recent times

00:06 the sewer which was installed, we think, over 50 years ago has been completely unable to cope

00:13 when the groundwater levels rise, which has resulted in sewage flowing into people's houses,

00:21 people's lavatories backing up so that they can't use them, and southern water has had to

00:29 install the pumps which you see behind me here in Charlton and up at East Dean, and bringing

00:37 multiple tankers in day and night to cope with removing the sewage. This is of course polluting

00:47 the river which ends up in Chichester Harbour, and this has been going on for very many years.

00:54 Southern water are now making some proposals to alleviate the situation, but we think these are

01:01 rather sticking plaster solutions, and what is actually needed is a complete renovation of the

01:08 sewage system down the valley. We have suffered from the tankers and from these pumping stations

01:14 which are a blot on the countryside. This is the National Park, South Downs National Park,

01:23 and we know that it's costing them tens of thousands of pounds a day to relieve the pressure,

01:30 whereas actually what is needed is to go back to basics and sort out the sewer. We have had

01:36 multiple visits in recent years from southern water. They have done investigative work,

01:42 they have tried lining some of the feeder pipes into the main sewer, but as you can see from this

01:50 year's experience which is by far and away the worst, it has made absolutely no difference.

01:58 We've had meetings, the parish councils have had meetings with southern water this year,

02:05 and they have made promises for work this coming summer. We have had promises I have to say from

02:12 them before which have come to nothing. We are very hopeful that this year they have actually

02:17 got money in their budget to do something, but whether in fact it is going to be sufficient,

02:23 I think the jury is well and truly out. They are pumping out of a sewer manhole

02:29 through some filtration devices and into the river. But when the river level drops,

02:38 as it has recently over the last few days because we haven't had much rain,

02:44 the Environment Agency imposes restrictions on their ability to pump directly into the river.

02:50 But they appear still to be doing that, as well as multiple tankers in this village and in East

02:58 Dean backing that up by taking the nasties away and taking them to a sewage plant somewhere.

03:06 There certainly have been rats, but it's a noise disturbance. This started before Christmas,

03:13 and this is at least the third year where we've had the encampment behind me.

03:20 And these are, it has been a wet winter admittedly, but the last two winters were not

03:28 particularly wet, which is I think an indication that there is something fundamentally wrong

03:34 with the capacity of the sewer system in the valley. We have lived here for over 40 years,

03:40 and we remember when the stream was sparkling clear water. It's a winter born, it only runs

03:47 in the winter, so there are no fish actually in the stream, but there's lots of other wildlife.

03:52 And quite clearly it does the area no good whatsoever, and the water that is going ends

04:02 up in Chichester Harbour, where again with Southern Waters sewage plant on the harbour,

04:08 there are major problems of pollution downstream.

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