After The Flood: Environment Agency working to clean up river

600,000 tonnes of raw sewage goes into Thames

Thousands of fish have been killed after 600,000 tonnes of untreated sewage was forced into the Thames during Tuesday's storms. According to reports on BBC News, the Environment Agency has said the dead fish were visible in the river at Kew, Brentford and Isleworth.

It said the sewage, which flowed into the Thames due to inadequate drainage systems in London, used up the water's oxygen reserves, killing the fish. A clean-up operation is under way to stop more bream and roach dying. 24 hours on from the storms, the water in the basins in Ferry Quays and Brentford Dock was noticably dirtier.   Risk of flooding to buildings in Brentford has been underestimated, according to one local resident

Thames Water has launched its oxygenating vessels which help improve the quality of the water.

Andrew Boyd of Thames Water said the company had been working with the Environment Agency to come up with a long-term solution to the problem.

He explained that London's Victorian sewers pushed water into the Thames instead of allowing it to flood homes and streets. "Everyone agrees that any solution to this will be a massive engineering scheme. We have worked with the Environment Agency and other agencies to produce a report for the government suggesting how the problem can be solved.

"We are waiting to hear from the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how they are minded to deal with the problem."

Streets in the area were generally unaffected by the floods, unlike roads in Chiswick that were closed to traffic because of the height of the water. However readers of BrentfordTW8.com noticed some problems near the A4.

4 Aug 2004

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