Sewer sealing aims to cut storm overflows

Efforts to cut storm overflows in an East Sussex village have been boosted by the sealing of 2km (1.24 miles) of sewers, Southern Water has said.

The water company said its teams had prioritised various engineering and green solutions in Fairlight to help reduce the amount of water entering and overloading sewers during and after heavy rainfall.

The sudden increases in flow trigger storm overflows into the environment to prevent homes and communities from flooding, they said.

Sewer sealing is one of the many tactics being utilised as part of the company's £1.5bn investment to solve sewage spills.

As well as sealing the sewers, Southern Water's teams have installed 341 water butts at homes and businesses covering an area of six hectares (60,000 sq m), carried out surveys across a further 5km (3.1 miles) of sewer spines in and around the village and tackled eight private surface water pipes in the Knowle Road area.

Southern Water added that a further 2km (1.24 miles) of sewers could be sealed "in the coming months".

Project manager James Latter, said: "Our work in Fairlight is really starting to make a difference and we're seeing less surface and groundwater able to work into way into our sewers."

In 2021 the company was fined a record £90m for deliberately dumping billions of litres of raw sewage into the sea.

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