Nearly a third of sewer blockages were caused by wet wipes being flushed down the toilet. In the worst case scenario blockages can cause raw sewage waste to back up into people’s homes and cause interior flooding, the company said.
Yorkshire Water technical manager James Harrison said: “We’re noticing a significant increase in the amount of sewer blockages related to wet wipes in particular. We understand information from manufacturers can be quite confusing as some products say flushable on the packaging.
“However, we would urge people to flush only ‘the 3Ps’ – poo, pee and paper down the toilet and to put anything else in the bin to try and prevent sewers from becoming blocked.”
Yorkshire Water has launched a campaign to highlight the significant amount of blockages it has to fix and to make customers aware of what items shouldn’t be flushed down the toilet.
There is a 52,500 kilometre sewer network operating across the region with many sewers made of brick dating back to the Victorian era.
Over the next five years, the company will invest £252 million to improve the quality of the region’s sewer network.