NI Water is calling on the public to 'Bin It Not Flush It' after the firm revealed it spends around £2.5 million cleaning up avoidable sewage spills caused by flushing inappropriate items into sewers.

Every year NI Water retrieves millions of waste items from the sewerage network that "simply shouldn't be there".

Some of the bizarre items that have been recovered include a car driving shaft, a child's bicycle, parts of an old fridge, and builders' mortar spread over 20 metres' length of sewer.

-- Advertisement --

Angela Halpenny, NI Water's Head of Environmental Regulation, said: "Wastewater drains that run from residential properties are only four inches wide and are designed to remove human waste and toilet roll only. Blockages are caused when other rubbish is flushed down the toilet or dumped into the sewers.

"The advice is simple; bin it, don’t flush it. Working together, we can ensure that our environment stays in a pristine condition that we can all enjoy."

(CD/MH)