Northern Ireland's top 20 blockage 'hotspots' have been revealed, costing NI Water £5 million over the last two years.

Belfast was ranked at the top of the list with 7,000 blockages over the last two years, followed by L'Derry and Newtownabbey with 3,000 and 1,400 respectively.

NI Water's Head of Environmental Regulation, Angela Halpenny explained: "NI Water fights a daily battle with blocked sewers and this time we are 'flushing' out the worst offenders in a bid to reduce blockages.  

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"The main cause of blocked sewers and out of sewer flooding is the flushing of inappropriate items such as baby wipes, cotton buds and sanitary products. Blockages are completely avoidable if everyone adopts a simple habit of binning everything other than the three P's, pee, poo and paper. 

"We're targeting our worst offending areas with an awareness campaign - so if you find your town on the list, look out for our 'blocked pipes flood homes' adverts and see how we all have the power to stop it."

A full list of the top 20 blockage 'hotspots' in NI is available on the NI Water website.

(CM/JG)