Fatbergs 'more prominent' in plush towns where residents have a penchant for posh toilet paper

Will Metcalfe
Images of a fatberg 210ft long found beneath the streets of Sidmouth. A water boss has revealed more affluent areas are more likely to be affected as residents prefer sturdier quilted toilet paper. (SWNS)
Images of a fatberg 210ft long found beneath the streets of Sidmouth. A water boss has revealed more affluent areas are more likely to be affected as residents prefer sturdier quilted toilet paper. (SWNS)

Affluent areas are more likely to be hit by fatbergs because of a penchant for posh loo paper – a water company boss has revealed.

Areas including Chelsea, Cheltenham and Harrogate have all been hit by the sewer blockers in recent years, and according to the Sunday Times its the prevalence of posh quilted loo paper that doesn’t break down as easily that does it.

The revelation comes a week after a 210ft long fatberg was discovered in Sidmouth, Devon.

Andrew Roantree, director of wastewater at South West Water, which manages Sidmouth sewers, told The Sunday Times: “These fatbergs do seem to crop up in more upmarket towns.

“The social demographics of fatbergs are complex – we see them in deprived areas too – so we want to work out how modern lifestyles cause them.”

Images of a fatberg 210ft long found beneath the streets of Sidmouth. A water boss has revealed more affluent areas are more likely to be affected as residents prefer sturdier quilted toilet paper. (SWNS)
Images of a fatberg 210ft long found beneath the streets of Sidmouth. A water boss has revealed more affluent areas are more likely to be affected as residents prefer sturdier quilted toilet paper. (SWNS)

As well as quilted toilet paper, wet wipes are believed to be a major cause of fatbergs.

And it’s believed it could take up eight weeks to remove the Goliath block.

In the north, Northumbrian Water said it spent £400,000 unblocking 13,000 blockages – 93% of which it believes are caused by wet wipes.

Though it revealed some of the weirdest blockages found in its drains were a dead piranha and a dead horse, believed to have been stuffed down a drain.

A new industry standard is set to be introduced this year for manufacturers to tell shoppers which wet wipes are flushable, to help beat the problem.

But Rae Stewart, of industry body, Water UK, told The Sunday Times: “Polyester baby wipes and so-called flushable wet wipes are the worst.”

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