Monster fatberg threatening flood of sewage cleared from under the Shard

Two “monster” fatbergs weighing 100 tonnes have been cleared from sewers underneath central London.

Engineers said the rancid lumps of congealed cooking fat, wet wipes, and sanitary products, were threatening to block the sewer and flood homes and businesses with wastewater over the festive period.

One, weighing a whopping 63 tonnes was removed from a Pall Mall sewer, while a second weighing 30 tonnes and stretching 70 metres, was extracted from the sewers of Cathedral Street, near the Shard.

Thames Water, which discovered the fatbergs, said they were a reminder of the importance of properly disposing roast turkey cooking fat over Christmas.

Stephen Pattenden, Thames Water network performance manager, said: “Fatbergs are like monsters from the deep, lurking and growing under our feet and the team worked around the clock to defeat these two.

“We’ve all seen the problems and damage they cause and I’d therefore ask everyone to please make sure they don’t pour fats and oils down the sink.”

The correct way to dispose of fats and oils is to let them cool and then throw them away in the bin inside a container, which “stops a fatberg growing into a monster”, he said.

The Pall Mall fatberg contained several tonnes of concrete which had to be broken up by engineers using power tools and then carried out by hand.

It comes months after Thames Water had to remove a 100 metre “concreteberg” from underneath Islington, while a 40-tonne fatberg was also cleared from a Greenwich sewer last month.

In 2017, Thames Water broke down the 130-tonne Whitechapel fatberg, believed to have been the biggest ever discovered.

Since then there have been 83,000 blockages caused by fat and wet wipes in London, Thames Water said.

Across its entire network, including Thames Valley, engineers deal with 75,000 blockages each year costing £18 million.

Mr Pattenden said: “Many of these could easily be avoided. It’s an extremely difficult job getting them out of our sewers. It’s cramped, hot and very unpleasant, especially when a chunk of fatberg is disturbed. The smell can be overpowering.”

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