Water company deploys wipe-catching crane to deter flushing non-biodegradable wipes

Water experts will track people flushing non-biodegradable wipes down their toilets in a bid to recoup the costs of clearing blockages, Northumbrian Water said on Wednesday. The company has unveiled a crane-like wipe-catching device designed to identify households that contribute to sewer blockages and to pursue enforcement action when needed. In the toughest cases, fines run into thousands of pounds and imprisonments of up to two years are on the table, the company said. Data analysis will first scan postcodes to identify the worst offenders before field teams visit households.

The claw-like devices are placed by a manhole near the suspect's drainage pipes to observe where wipes accumulate and to extract the material clogging the system. The devices come in sizes chosen to match the blocked pipe, and the range now includes models named the Goliath, the Barbarian and the Stinger, evolving from an earlier design nicknamed the Porcupine.

Many wipes are made of plastic and do not break down, unlike toilet paper, raising the risk of blockages, pumps choking, and even sewage overflows into the environment. Northumbrian Water cited its efforts as correlated with a drop in blockages across its 19,000-mile network and a reduction in internal flooding events by about 65%. The company said its crackdown has focused on Skelton in Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees and Sunderland, as well as Bedlington in Northumberland, with letters of warning also sent to some residents of North Tyneside, The Telegraph reported. The company said nothing should be flushed down the toilet except toilet paper, even wipes that claim to be flushable, and it indicated that it is sharing its methods with other water companies across the United Kingdom.

Rob Miller, a sewage maintenance operative who uses the new wipe-catching gadgets, said: "We've pulled up to 150 wipes off in a 24-hour period in the bigger pipes, and they might not be able to catch all of it, especially when the equipment gets full, so it's an indication of how bad an area is. Some individual houses are flushing 30 wipes a day and often they don't realise what they are doing. We pulled two buckets of wipes from one house and the husband and wife were arguing about who was responsible and the woman suddenly realised it was the wipes she was using to clean the bathroom."

This month, a three-week mission to clear up a 'wet wipe island' near Hammersmith Bridge in west London was completed. The grim site, which was the size of two tennis courts and reached depths of more than three feet, consisted of around five million wet wipes, according to Thames Water. The company added that it got rid of 3.8 billion wipes across its network every year.

Officials say the wipe problem is a national issue that costs water and wastewater utilities significant sums and disrupts services for customers. The Telegraph reported that Northumbrian Water's approach could be shared with other UK providers as a potential model for reducing blockages and associated flooding.