Anglian Water is launching a new campaign to keep fats and wipes out of Cambridge sewers in an effort to keep the city’s pipes clear.
Over the past three years there have been an average of 408 blockages per year in the city – more than one a day. More than 50 households a year in the city suffer from sewage flooding outside their properties caused by blocked pipes.
Fats poured down drains and wipes flushed down toilets are causing a big problem in the city and the surrounding villages. Along with other unflushable items like cotton buds and sanitary products these build up inside sewer pipes reducing flow and causing blockages which can lead to sewage spills.
Anglian Water launched the campaign to highlight the issue to local residents at an open day at Cambridge Water Recycling Centre on Saturday. Staff at Cambridge Water Recycling Centre remove around 5 tonnes of unflushable waste from the works’ inlet pipes every week.
Over the coming months the campaign team will be attending community events, writing to thousands of residents and running a poster campaign. There will also be adverts on local radio stations and ad-bikes will be appearing in the city to help spread the word.
In one of the worst affected areas - Ditton Lane and the surrounding streets – the water company’s technicians are being called to unblock pipes once a fortnight on average.
Rachel Dyson, from Anglian Water’s Keep It Clear campaign, said:
“Blocked pipes often lead to sewage spills and these can cause misery for nearby residents as well as harming the environment.
“In recent years we have seen more and more blockages caused by fats and wipes – but these things should not be going down our sinks and toilets. We hope that by raising awareness of the problems these unflushable items cause we will encourage people to think before they flush.
“Cambridge is a historic city with often narrow streets and deep sewers, this makes the job of maintaining the network even harder and more disruptive to traffic. If we all play our part we can help keep the system clear, reduce sewage spills and keep water bills down.”
With the UK government demanding a 50% reduction in storm overflow spills by 2029, the era of reactive management is over. Speaking in the House of Commons on 21 July 2025, then environment secretary Steve Reed said, “This Government will cut water companies’ sewage pollution in half by the end of the decade.”
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