Chichester resident calls on new sewage system instead of Southern water pumping waste into Lavant.
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00:00 Originally the River Lavent was a lovely, very clear chalk stream, but in recent times
00:06 the sewer which was installed, we think, over 50 years ago has been completely unable to cope
00:13 when the groundwater levels rise, which has resulted in sewage flowing into people's houses,
00:21 people's lavatories backing up so that they can't use them, and southern water has had to
00:29 install the pumps which you see behind me here in Charlton and up at East Dean, and bringing
00:37 multiple tankers in day and night to cope with removing the sewage. This is of course polluting
00:47 the river which ends up in Chichester Harbour, and this has been going on for very many years.
00:54 Southern water are now making some proposals to alleviate the situation, but we think these are
01:01 rather sticking plaster solutions, and what is actually needed is a complete renovation of the
01:08 sewage system down the valley. We have suffered from the tankers and from these pumping stations
01:14 which are a blot on the countryside. This is the National Park, South Downs National Park,
01:23 and we know that it's costing them tens of thousands of pounds a day to relieve the pressure,
01:30 whereas actually what is needed is to go back to basics and sort out the sewer. We have had
01:36 multiple visits in recent years from southern water. They have done investigative work,
01:42 they have tried lining some of the feeder pipes into the main sewer, but as you can see from this
01:50 year's experience which is by far and away the worst, it has made absolutely no difference.
01:58 We've had meetings, the parish councils have had meetings with southern water this year,
02:05 and they have made promises for work this coming summer. We have had promises I have to say from
02:12 them before which have come to nothing. We are very hopeful that this year they have actually
02:17 got money in their budget to do something, but whether in fact it is going to be sufficient,
02:23 I think the jury is well and truly out. They are pumping out of a sewer manhole
02:29 through some filtration devices and into the river. But when the river level drops,
02:38 as it has recently over the last few days because we haven't had much rain,
02:44 the Environment Agency imposes restrictions on their ability to pump directly into the river.
02:50 But they appear still to be doing that, as well as multiple tankers in this village and in East
02:58 Dean backing that up by taking the nasties away and taking them to a sewage plant somewhere.
03:06 There certainly have been rats, but it's a noise disturbance. This started before Christmas,
03:13 and this is at least the third year where we've had the encampment behind me.
03:20 And these are, it has been a wet winter admittedly, but the last two winters were not
03:28 particularly wet, which is I think an indication that there is something fundamentally wrong
03:34 with the capacity of the sewer system in the valley. We have lived here for over 40 years,
03:40 and we remember when the stream was sparkling clear water. It's a winter born, it only runs
03:47 in the winter, so there are no fish actually in the stream, but there's lots of other wildlife.
03:52 And quite clearly it does the area no good whatsoever, and the water that is going ends
04:02 up in Chichester Harbour, where again with Southern Waters sewage plant on the harbour,
04:08 there are major problems of pollution downstream.
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