Work begins to remove giant fatberg found in Devon

Workers have begun the task of destroying the largest fatberg ever found in the southwest of England.

The team will use pickaxes and shovels to break up the 64-metre-long blockage in Sidmouth, Devon, which was caused by fat, oil and grease from wet wipes and items that cannot be flushed.

But work was brought to a halt on Wednesday after heavy rain overnight.

The team will return to continue their work when water levels in the sewer become safe again.

South West Water’s director of wastewater, Andrew Roantree, said: “The Sidmouth fatberg is the largest discovered in our service history, and (it) will take our sewer team around eight weeks to dissect this monster in exceptionally challenging work conditions.”

South West Water is encouraging people to “only flush the 3Ps – pee, paper and poo – down the loo”, and dispose of cooking waste in a bin rather than the sink.

In 2017, a 250-metre-long fatberg was found in sewers beneath Whitechapel, east London.

A chunk of that blockage later went on display at the Museum of London.