Human waste is gushing from drains as residents battle to keep sewage from flooding into their homes
Olivier Vergnault Senior Reporter and Alex Richards
06:00, 30 Jan 2026
(Image: Olivier Vergnault / Cornwall Live)
Human waste, sanitary products, clumps of soiled toilet paper and even hypodermic needles have had to be pulled out of the literal ‘rivers of s**t’ which have been flowing outside people’s sandbagged homes in Stithians, Cornwall – and residents are sick of it.
The South West has been battered by three storms in quick succession and the county has been hit with a deluge of almost Biblical proportions.
For the past three weeks many residents in Stithians have had to barricade their gates and front doors with sandbags, not because the local river has broken its banks but because drains are gurgling with raw sewage.
“I have had sewage at my door three times in two weeks,” Anne Oliver, a resident in Foundry at the bottom of the village, told us. “I’ve called South West Water (SWW) 39 times since December 9. But on Monday night (January 26) we had to close the road ourselves to manage traffic because it was all over the road.”
Standing between a row of sandbags outside her garden gate and another row of sandbags outside her front door, visibly emotionally drained, angry and at the end of her tether, Anne said she and her neighbours on either side of her house, have had to invest in two pumps and a generator to try to lower the level of the raw sewage flowing by their doors, reports Cornwall Live.
Signs put up by the side of Hendra Road in Stithians after a ‘lake of poo’ formed from overflowing raw sewage in the middle of the road(Image: Simon Heester / Cornwall Live)
You can see the toilet paper bunched out of the drains by her house whilst the drain in the middle of the road overflows constantly. The property across from her home has a brown sludge of faeces and sanitary products clustered together around an overflowing drain cover like a revolting tideline of waste.
Anne, who is now withholding the sewage portion of her water bills until SWW has resolved the problem permanently, indicates where the sewage flows down a hole in the river bank and goes straight into the stream.
She said: “We have had human faeces, sanitary towels, toilet paper and even hypodermic syringes floating in raw sewage outside our door. What the hell do people throw down their toilets?”.
“I phoned SWW on Friday when it was already bad at 10.30pm and told them we needed a tanker to pump the sewage. Nothing. At 4am on Saturday we were bailing sewage outside our front door. A tanker showed up at 11am.
“(Cornwall Council road contractor) Cormac, even though they didn’t have to, put the sandbags outside our homes. They tried to empty the drain but couldn’t because there is a plate inside that only SWW can access.
“I just don’t know what to do anymore. It seems that it doesn’t matter how many times you call SWW. They don’t care. That’s what we’re facing. S**t and needles outside our homes.”
During a visit to Stithians, a tanker arrived and began pumping water out of the gurgling drain beside the row of houses where Anne lives. The level could be seen dropping noticeably as sewage suddenly stopped flowing onto the road.
“It’s great,” Anne said. “But five minutes after the tanker is gone, our pumps will kick in again. What’s needed is a complete overhaul of the sewage pipes in the village. It’s just not fit for purpose anymore. But if and when SWW does it is anyone’s guess.”
The situation is identical at the village’s upper end on Hendra Road, where a ‘lake of poo’ has been appearing, disappearing and reappearing over the past fortnight as Storm Goretti, Storm Ingrid and this week Storm Chandra delivered torrential downpours.
The contaminated water stood a foot deep in the road’s centre during our visit, though locals informed us it had been covering the footpath and reaching their doorsteps over the weekend and on Monday.
Anne Oliver outside her sandbagged home in Foundry, Stithians, and a stream of raw sewage, faeces, sanitary products, toilet paper and even hypodermic needles has been flowing past and into her homes three times in two weeks(Image: Olivier Vergnault / Cornwall Live)
Jordan Swiggs, who relocated to the residential development off Hendra in October, gestured towards a drain cover in the road’s middle that was spilling over. “That’s been like that constantly since November,” he said.
“It’s disgusting.”
As we positioned ourselves roadside, motorists attempted to reduce their speed to avoid splashing us. However, a farmer driving a pick-up truck and trailer ploughed through the sewage lake’s centre at maximum velocity, sending a surge of brown filth in every direction and across the pavement, where a terrace of properties have sandbags positioned – not by SWW but by the local housing association to prevent sewage from reaching their dwellings.
Nicky Greasley Sterianou was walking her Romanian rescue dog past the sewage. “I have to walk through here six times a day to go to work, to walk my dog or if I want something in the village.
“It’s horrid. I don’t understand what SWW are doing about it because it is not being pumped away.”
The utility company insisted it is using tankers to pump the raw sewage away. However, residents remain unconvinced by its assurances.
Local resident Andy Snapes, the chairman and founding partner of the Built Environment Consultancy and an ocean activist, has been highlighting sewage issues in Cornwall for years.
A tanker turns up to pump out sewage out of an overflowing drain in Foundry, Stithians(Image: Olivier Vergnault / Cornwall Live)
On his LinkedIn page he posted a picture of the most recent incident on Monday (January 26) where Hendra Road was submerged in foul brown sewage water.
He certainly didn’t mince his words. He said: “This is Stithians now, South West Water, footpaths are submerged in s**t-laden water. Children have to walk to school along this road in the morning, what do you suggest that they do?”.
“You have been told since late afternoon that the village needs tankers back in place to pump out the foul main, our MP Perran Moon called you almost five hours ago to request tankers immediately.
“It’s now after 9pm, the pathogen rich waters continue to rise, and still no tankers. People’s houses are now under threat. This is a major public health issue, do you even give a damn?” Speaking to CornwallLive he added: “In Foundry there are people trying to barricade their doors with sandbags against sewage coming into their homes.
“At the other end of the village at Hendra you have a flood of sewage on the road. Mums with pushchairs are trying to the best they can to avoid being splash with sewage on the school run. It is a literal s**t show.
“There was a public consultation in the village about three years ago when South West Water said they were aware of the problems with the pipes. They were proposing to put in a remedial tank in outside the village school that would have been able to take in all the overflowing sewage.
“It was supposedly a priority. But they have done nothing. And now we have little kids being splashed with s**t on their way to school. It’s horrendous.”
Andy explained that he positioned himself beside the road with local Mr Moon and demonstrated the issues to him. He stated that the Labour MP immediately telephoned SWW, who informed him that tankers were already present at the location pumping out the sewage.
“Perran Moon and I were there and there were no tankers at all. There is so much anger in the village right now.”
Andy explained that under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 Cornwall Council has a statutory obligation to intervene where there is a public nuisance that is prejudicial to health. He said: “They have a legal and moral obligation to declare this a public nuisance and issue an abatement notice to SWW to sort the problems out. I don’t think they have. But why not? It’s time Cornwall Council stepped up and complied with their legal obligations. No more obfuscation.”
In a post on the Stithians Community board on Facebook, Cornwall Councillor John Thomas, for Lanner and Stithians, said he contacted the emergency out-of-hours number on Monday evening and was passed onto Cormac for urgent attention.
He said: “I am continuing to work with SWW to resolve this unacceptable situation. There is an interim solution and I’m instigating a deferred road closure licence to install a large storage tank to relieve pressures on Hendra and Foundry.
“I have been busy again over the latter part of last week and the weekend organising tankers, engineers and clean-up teams, I also just WhatsApp messaged the manager of SWW to order another urgent tanker in response to resident who had requested one but had not turned up.”
Raw sewage full of human faces, sanitary products, toilet paper and even hypodermic needles flowing past people’s sandbagged homes in Stithians or pooling in a lake of poo outside their homes(Image: Olivier Vergnault / CornwallLive)
Back at Hendra, one resident, a mum-of-four with sandbags positioned by her property gate and also by her front door, said it’s the worst she has witnessed in the nine years she has lived at the property.
“On Monday night it was absolutely horrendous,” she said. “The cars were going through and the sewage was flowing all over the pavement. By 10.30pm it was really bad.
“That’s when the housing association delivered sandbags. Not SWW. I have contacted SWW so many times on the phone, on Facebook, WhatsApp, email. I am still waiting for a response.
“But if you owe them money or your bill is due, they are straight on the phone to you. I have four children and and to make sure they don’t turn up at school covered in raw sewage I have to go through the fields at the back so it’s a choice of them being covered in mud or in poo.”
She continued: “It looks alright just now (Tuesday morning) but last night it stank. There were sanitary products floating by the house. It’s foul. Probably full of pathogens and diseases. It’s disgusting.
“We pay sewage fees but it doesn’t men we want to see it or smell it outside our homes.”
A spokesperson from SWW said: “We know that the recent heavy rainfall has caused parts of our network in Stithians to become overwhelmed.
“Our teams are working hard to reduce impact in the area and we have teams on the ground supporting customers. We are using tankers to remove flows where possible, providing sandbags to divert flows away from properties, and cleaning up debris as quickly as possible.
“We are urgently working on a long-term solution here which includes removing rainfall from our sewer network and investigating potential illegal connections into the sewers, as well as increasing the size of local sewers to provide additional storage.”
We have approached Cornwall Council to enquire whether it intends to use or has already utilised the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to serve a notice on SWW to address the matter as it constitutes a public health concern.
A spokesperson for the local authority explained: “Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, local authorities have powers to serve abatement notices where a statutory nuisance is identified. However, public sewers are governed by a separate legal framework, namely, the Water Industry Act 1991, which places responsibility for their operation, maintenance, and performance on the statutory sewerage undertaker (in this case, South West Water).
“The courts have consistently held that issues involving public sewer capacity, overflows, or system performance fall under this regulatory regime, not the statutory nuisance process. Furthermore, case law has reinforced that defects or overflows from public sewers are not ordinarily addressed through statutory nuisance procedures, as the Water Industry Act provides dedicated mechanisms for regulation and oversight, primarily through OFWAT, rather than through local authority enforcement via abatement notices.
“However, we recognise the community’s concerns and the importance of ensuring that South West Water has robust plans in place to manage the issue. We will therefore be writing formally to South West Water to request:”.