Beware of river water.

[Alan de Enfield]

River pollution: Rescuer infected with sewage-linked parasite - BBC News

 

A lifeboat volunteer said he spent days in hospital after contracting a parasitic infection linked to sewage after a river training exercise.

David Deveney suffered giardiasis after spending two hours in the River Severn, and said an investigation found an 80% chance it came from human sewage.

Sewage was spilt into Welsh rivers more than 95,000 times and for more than 791,000 hours last year, figures show.

The illness has not been categorically linked to sewage or spills in Wales.

Both the River Severn and River Wye, which ends in the Severn Estuary, run through Wales and England.

Welsh Water, which provides water and wastewater services to most households in Wales, said the spills had "a limited impact" on Welsh rivers.

Mr Deveney, a lifeboat training manager with the Severn Area Rescue Association in Beachley, at the mouth of the Wye in Gloucestershire, became unwell after teaching volunteers how to enter and exit the water in October 2020.

 

The training involved being submerged.

• Last chance to save Wales' rivers?
• Sewage dumping soars to 105,000 recorded incidents
• 'It's an ecological catastrophe on my doorstep'

Giardiasis is an illness caused by the giardia parasite, and can be caused by drinking water that's not been treated to kill germs, according to the NHS.

He said getting a parasite during the exercise "was the last thing on his mind".

But that evening, after the training exercise, he said he sat up in bed with "projectile" vomiting and severe diarrhoea.

That went on for three days.

Because he had not eaten in any restaurants or drunk non-treated water in the 48 hours before getting sick, his GP concluded he had probably ingested live bacteria during his two hours in the water.

 

Wild swimming warning

Giardiasis is a notifiable illness, meaning it had to be reported to Public Health Wales (PHW) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW), as well as the authorities in England.

"They said it was an 80% chance of human slurry or human waste," he said.

"It turns your stomach when you think about it… you've ingested that through no fault of your own when you thought you were just messing around in a normal river."

[Tracy D'arth]

Have we now reached a situation where the canals are cleaner than the rivers?

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Have we now reached a situation where the canals are cleaner than the rivers?

 

Sewage works discharge into canals as well - maybe it is now that Rivers are as dirty as canals ?

[Bee]

Yuck. There's something about parasites that makes me shudder and puts me right off my breakfast

[Mad Harold]

29 minutes ago, Bee said:

Yuck. There's something about parasites that makes me shudder and puts me right off my breakfast

The thought of sewage circulating through my outboard's cooling system turns my stomach too.

[Tonka]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

River pollution: Rescuer infected with sewage-linked parasite - BBC News

 

A lifeboat volunteer said he spent days in hospital after contracting a parasitic infection linked to sewage after a river training exercise.

David Deveney suffered giardiasis after spending two hours in the River Severn, and said an investigation found an 80% chance it came from human sewage.

Sewage was spilt into Welsh rivers more than 95,000 times and for more than 791,000 hours last year, figures show.

The illness has not been categorically linked to sewage or spills in Wales.

Both the River Severn and River Wye, which ends in the Severn Estuary, run through Wales and England.

Welsh Water, which provides water and wastewater services to most households in Wales, said the spills had "a limited impact" on Welsh rivers.

Mr Deveney, a lifeboat training manager with the Severn Area Rescue Association in Beachley, at the mouth of the Wye in Gloucestershire, became unwell after teaching volunteers how to enter and exit the water in October 2020.

 

The training involved being submerged.

• Last chance to save Wales' rivers?
• Sewage dumping soars to 105,000 recorded incidents
• 'It's an ecological catastrophe on my doorstep'

Giardiasis is an illness caused by the giardia parasite, and can be caused by drinking water that's not been treated to kill germs, according to the NHS.

He said getting a parasite during the exercise "was the last thing on his mind".

But that evening, after the training exercise, he said he sat up in bed with "projectile" vomiting and severe diarrhoea.

That went on for three days.

Because he had not eaten in any restaurants or drunk non-treated water in the 48 hours before getting sick, his GP concluded he had probably ingested live bacteria during his two hours in the water.

 

Wild swimming warning

Giardiasis is a notifiable illness, meaning it had to be reported to Public Health Wales (PHW) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW), as well as the authorities in England.

"They said it was an 80% chance of human slurry or human waste," he said.

"It turns your stomach when you think about it… you've ingested that through no fault of your own when you thought you were just messing around in a normal river."

Yes but because there was less sewage let into the rivers then last year the ceo of Welsh Water got a bigger bonus. 

I kid you not

[Stroudwater1]

It’s a great deal better in some areas from the 1960s eg The Trent Thames and Teme but much worse in others such as The Wye. 
 

it’s not just the water companies though , some suspicion is over  chicken farming and The Wye. 
 

TBF anglers did have a great influence on water quality years ago with sewage. It used to be terrible by the Nottingham sewage discharge. 
 

Leptospirosis though is more dangerous than Giardia, that’s from rat “effluent “ . 

[Alan de Enfield]

20 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

It used to be terrible by the Nottingham sewage discharge. 

 

And, after rain, the outflow from Stoke Bardolph (on the Trent) is very scummy and frothy, the sewage works cannot accept anything above 'normal floes' so as soon as the storm drains start delivering water the sewage works goes into 'overflow divert' mode.

[MtB]

16 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

And, after rain, the outflow from Stoke Bardolph (on the Trent) is very scummy and frothy, the sewage works cannot accept anything above 'normal floes' so as soon as the storm drains start delivering water the sewage works goes into 'overflow divert' mode.

 

 

Yes there was an article on the beeb the other day about why we have this 'sewage overflow' problem, and why the treatment works do it. 

 

The media seems to think fining the companies ever more money is the fix but when the treatment works simply can't cope with the combined volume of sewage and storm drainage, the overflowing is the result. Fining companies won't make the treatment works higher in capacity. Massive increase in capacity is needed, which gets prevented by nimbyism I think they concluded, but I wasn't really listening properly.

[Alan de Enfield]

15 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

Yes there was an article on the beeb the other day about why we have this 'sewage overflow' problem, and why the treatment works do it. 

 

The media seems to think fining the companies ever more money is the fix but when the treatment works simply can't cope with the combined volume of sewage and storm drainage, the overflowing is the result. Fining companies won't make the treatment works higher in capacity. Massive increase in capacity is needed, which gets prevented by nimbyism I think they concluded, but I wasn't really listening properly.

 

Our local village put a moritorium of granting planning permission for new houses as the existimg sewage works could not cope with what was already 'coming down the pipes'

 

It took about 2 years but eventually an ENORMOUS hole was dug on the outskirts of the village (before the sewage works), lined and covered over. This is now the 'holding tank' that fills up during the day and is processed at night when less people are using the toilet.

A good 'work around'.

 

 

I'm not sure whats going to happen now the moritorium is lifted and there are a couple of planning applications each of around 300 house (potentially another 2000 people). I'd make it a condition of planning that the developers provided a mini-sewage works that could accomodate 2x the volume produced by their developmemt, or, (hows this for controversial) every house must have a composting toilet and is not connected to the sewage system.

[Tonka]

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Our local village put a moritorium of granting planning permission for new houses as the existimg sewage works could not cope with what was already 'coming down the pipes'

 

It took about 2 years but eventually an ENORMOUS hole was dug on the outskirts of the village (before the sewage works), lined and covered over. This is now the 'holding tank' that fills up during the day and is processed at night when less people are using the toilet.

A good 'work around'.

 

 

I'm not sure whats going to happen now the moritorium is lifted and there are a couple of planning applications each of around 300 house (potentially another 2000 people). I'd make it a condition of planning that the developers provided a mini-sewage works that could accomodate 2x the volume produced by their developmemt, or, (hows this for controversial) every house must have a composting toilet and is not connected to the sewage system.

Along with schools and doctors which are needed when houses are built but cost too much so are all ignored

[MtB]

9 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

or, (hows this for controversial) every house must have a composting toilet and is not connected to the sewage system.

 

 

A misnomer as composting toilets do not compost. The user has to do that separately and later, as we all know on here. But do the planning committee realise this?

 

 

 

I bet they think you sh1t in the top, and shovel out wonderful compost for the roses ten minutes later out from underneath.

 

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

6 minutes ago, MtB said:

I bet they think you sh1t in the top, and shovel out wonderful compost for the roses ten minutes later out from underneath.

 

 

My family home (built in 1660) had a 3-seater 'composting toilet' in a 'lean to' by the back-kitchen, I understand that it was normally the Gardeners boy who would shovel it out every few day.

 

I simply used it to stand my Ferret cages on.

[CanalRetentive]

Does anyone know if they used to dump sewage in the canals when they were first built? Just interested to know

[Alan de Enfield]

9 minutes ago, CanalRetentive said:

Does anyone know if they used to dump sewage in the canals when they were first built? Just interested to know

 

I'm sure they did - but remember 200 years ago there was not much in the way of a sewerage system - they used to empty the 'gusunder' out of the bedroom window and into the street so I doubt any concern was given to dumping anything into the canals.

 

London has one of the first UK 'modern' sewage systems following the 'Great Stink' that resulted in parliament being temporarily closed due to the smells from the Thames

 

The Great Stink was an event in Central London in July and August 1858 during which the hot weather exacerbated the smell of untreated human waste and industrial effluent that was present on the banks of the River Thames. The problem had been mounting for some years, with an ageing and inadequate sewer system that emptied directly into the Thames. The miasma from the effluent was thought to transmit contagious diseases, and three outbreaks of cholera before the Great Stink were blamed on the ongoing problems with the river.

 

 

"The Silent Highwayman" (1858). Death rows on the Thames, claiming the lives of victims who have not paid to have the river cleaned up.

 

The current London sewage system opened in the late 1800s (around 1860-70 from memory)

 

We have the sewage works outfall running into the canals today, but the output is considerably cleaner than it was a couple of hundred years ago.

[Tonka]

There used to be houseboat near Cowley Peachy lock used to have a sewer pipe sticking out canalside. Just under the outlet was a ledge and the turds used to sit on the ledge.

[ditchcrawler]

David Walliams found the Thames not to clean 

 

"Additionally, his progress was marred by the river's more feculent contents. According to Thames Water, some 500,000 cubic metres (17,660,000 cubic feet) of raw sewage entered the London section of the Thames in the week before Walliams reached it."

[Alan de Enfield]

36 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

David Walliams found the Thames not to clean 

 

"Additionally, his progress was marred by the river's more feculent contents. According to Thames Water, some 500,000 cubic metres (17,660,000 cubic feet) of raw sewage entered the London section of the Thames in the week before Walliams reached it."

 

 

 

David Walliams, is said to be undergoing test to determine if he is suffering from Weils disease after his recent 140-mile charity swim along the Thames.

The Little Britain star first became ill during his epic 140 mile Thames swim for, but the symptoms – including fever, diarrhoea and muscle pain – have persisted and doctors now fear David could be suffering from the life threatening illness.

 

"The first signs were during the swim — the sudden fever, the diarrhoea and the rash,” 

 

"The extreme and continued muscle and joint pain and the fact he is still extremely fatigued and feverish show all the classic signs of Weil's. He is undergoing tests but at least he's in good hands."

 

Weil’s disease is contracted when a person comes into contact with water that has been contaminated by infected animal urine.

 

Before Walliams set off on his swim he had been given inoculations and a precautionary course of antibiotics, but, as a result of heavy rain, some 132 million gallons of raw sewage had entered the river over the previous week.

 

By day three, Walliams was falling behind schedule after becoming “very poorly” with a high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea.

[gatekrash]

I remember back in the early 90s when we used to launch our sailing dinghy on the Plym, we knew not to launch about an hour after low water because the sewage outlet met the incoming tide right at the bottom of the slipway at about that time and the turds used to wash around your legs as you launched. 

 

South West Water did some tests with red dye to see where the sewage outlets we're going, turned the whole area red for a tide, then shortly afterwards they locked off the fresh water tap at the top of the slip because after the red dye tests the water out if it turned pink and they realised that somehow it had been contaminated with raw sewage, and probably had been for quite a while.

 

Lot cleaner now but they still dump raw crap when there's heavy rain.

[Mike Todd]

6 hours ago, CanalRetentive said:

Does anyone know if they used to dump sewage in the canals when they were first built? Just interested to know

Our first canal experience was a hire boat in 1967. It had a 'sea toilet' which pumped the contents straight into the canal. Later hires were fitted with elsans but with a lack of disposal facilities they were equipped with a spade to dig a hole under a suitable hedge.

Edited April 16, 2022 by Mike Todd

[Guest]

A lasting memory from one of our first ever Broads holidays in the late 60's was my little sister fishing with her net at Reedham.

 

'Ooh look Daddy Ive caught a fish, its a brown one'

 

🤮🤮

 

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by The Happy Nomad

[ditchcrawler]

13 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

Our first canal experience was a hire boat in 1967. It had a 'sea toilet' which pumped the contents straight into the canal. Later hires were fitted with elsans but with a lack of disposal facilities they were equipped with a spade to dig a hole under a suitable hedge.

Doesnt the sewage get into the canal at Wendover and near Berco