The Barbarian: How Northumbrian is battling sewer flooding

Northumbrian Water has developed an arsenal of tools in its war against wet wipes, including the Barbarian which has helped the company remove thousands of clogged up wipes from sewers.

In 2019, 64 per cent of the 15,681 blockages cleared by Northumbrian were caused by wet wipes so the company began a campaign called Bin the Wipe to encourage customers to play their part.

The Barbarian is an evolution from its predecessor the Porcupine. Its inventor Steve Green, who works as a sewerage maintenance operative, created the Barbarian for use in fast-moving sewers.

The device works by being placed in sewers that have been identified as blockage hotspots, it starts at the mains is then tracked by the team as it moves towards properties to follow blockages, where high volumes of wipes are being flushed.

Green said the teams have had great success with their targeted approach within certain postcode areas. When a property has been identified as a “foul flusher” the team visits the home to discuss the problems non-flushable wipes can cause with householders. Green said the face-to-face approach has worked really well, with people quickly understanding why they should not flush wet wipes, even if the packaging implies they can.

“Customers are really receptive, when they see the problems blockages cause, they are quite shocked,” Green said and added these conversations often cause a ripple effect with friends and neighbours sharing what they’ve learnt.

At the start of 2020 the company targeted around 1,200 properties that were identified as a blockage hotspot area and were able to achieve a 65 per cent reduction in the amount of wet wipes being flushed. This proactive approach is being extended and rolled out into other hotspots. The growing family of tools is lifted and shifted with the teams.

After the success of the pilot work in Stockton the team was given more funding to take on more employees and is planning to target 50,000 properties this year.

Northumbrian now has four crews of two technicians dedicated to cutting problems from wet wipes and actively engaging with customers about the problems flushing wipes can cause. As well as 27 Barbarians – which are best-suited to fast-moving sewers, the team has 10 Porcupines, 20 Goliaths for larger pipes, 60 Stingers for smaller pipes, and six Sentinels that resemble nets to sweep and catch non-flushable items.

Simon Cyhanko, head of wastewater networks, said with two-thirds of blockages attributable to wipes and consumer behaviour getting to grips with blockages is a high priority for the company.

“Blockages can result in sewer flooding inside people’s homes, or external flooding in gardens or streets and even causing pollution in the environment including rivers and bathing waters,” Cyhanko explained. “Protecting the environment and our customers from sewer flooding is something we take very seriously, which is why we’ve put a big focus on wet wipes, but everyone needs to play a part.”

Green added that it’s not necessarily the people who put wipes down their loo who experience flooding problems, but often it is further down the network a home can have issues.

He said early in the first national lockdown the teams noticed increased amounts of kitchen roll and blue roll in sewers – when toilet paper had not been available.

The company’s Bin the Wipe campaign was one of its most engaged with on social media last year with the Barbarian even gaining its name through its channels. Although Northumbrian has not yet translated how the reductions in flushing wipes correlates to the number of blockages, Cyhanko said the work on the ground, the marketing and social media campaigns, and the overall team effort is having a huge impact.

Over the past few years the water sector has collectively lobbied manufacturers of wet wipes to make their wipes safe to flush and to make packaging clear that most wipes do not break down and cause problems. This has only had a limited impact as very few wipes have so far met the “fine to flush” industry accreditation.

Green said: “I dislike the word flushable on wet wipes packets, all it means is it leaves the bowl so that would mean a t-shirt is ‘technically flushable’ but you wouldn’t put that down the loo.”

He’s created a video for customers to see the difference in how wipes break down compared to toilet paper and the social media campaigns encourage people to try it at home before flushing.

“The vast majority of wet wipes will not break down in the sewer network,” Cyhanko said. “Our approach is new and very different to anything that has been done before and what we have learnt will be used to provide information to the entire industry to help tackle this nationwide issue.

“We can’t be still having this conversation in 10 years’ time. We are flooding customers now and polluting the environment, so we have to be ahead of the game working proactively,” Cyhanko said.