Kennet and Avon is open sewer

[flickadancer]

Hello,

I was out cruising with my husband on the Kennet and Avon canal when I had the misfortune to fall in and as it was deep to inadvertently swallow a mouthful of water.

I fell in under a bridge and found that the towpath was so undercut I couldn't kick myself out on the bank as my feet had disappeared under the bank and the water was at least six feet deep. Luckily a passer by came and hauled me out as I had been going on ahead of the boat to prepare the next lock and my husband was nowhere in sight.

I have been horribly and disgustingly ill since then.

What I would like to say is that the canal seems to me to be nothing better than an open sewer, as I have actually seen people emptying their elsans directly into it, and have a photo to prove this, and that all along the canal are a series of permanently or semi permanently moored boats that never seem to have gone anywhere all winter let alone the pump out or elsan emptying point. These boats are being lived on. Where are they putting their sewage? In the canal of course.

I would like to call on CART to police these boats and to find out exactly what they do with their sewage and fine them accordingly.

Farmers are not allowed to pollute their land or nearby waterways in any way and would be heavily fined if they did so. Why should these dirty people get away with doing so?

Incidentally I sent the photo to both CART and the EA and NEITHER of them did a thing about it. Spineless, or rather, just turning a blind eye to something they know is going on everywhere.

I am sure I am not the first person to suffer a horrible illness after having fallen in this dirty canal (where my husband used to swim regularly as a boy - BEFORE it was restored and filled with dirty boaters) as the assistant at the chemists where my husband went for my medication told him she frequently has people in suffering after falls in the canal.

Obviously not everyone does this and there are probably many more clean and well behaved boaters than there are dirty ones, but these dirty ones are spoiling the whole canal for the rest of us and turning it into something akin to the Thames before Joseph Bazalgette's sewage system was introduced. Will it take someone getting Cholera before something is done?

Every time I think what I might have ingested I shiver in horror.

Flicka

 

[Guest]

I take it you have sought medical advice since your dunking ~ if not you really should.

 

Can't comment about anything else you've posted because although our boat was built down there and cruised the K&A we unfortunately never have.

[flickadancer]

Yes I have! The doctor seems to think I just need to let it work out of my system. I think the actual thought of what I have ingested is now 50 per cent of why I still feel so awful!

Flicka

[Guest]

Yes I have! The doctor seems to think I just need to let it work out of my system. I think the actual thought of what I have ingested is now 50 per cent of why I still feel so awful!

Flicka

 

He didn't consider the risk of Leptospirosis I take it - rare but possible.

[Arthur Marshall]

I don't think many of us put our sewage into the canal, especially the people who actually live on it. It would seem a bit counterproductive! However, cows certainly do, swimming dogs probably do, and so do the fish. There is also algae which is dangerous to swallow, and run offs from the fertilisers and muck spread on the farmland (some of which can be untreated human waste). All in all, it makes dodgy table water. But it's still probably better than what an awful lot of people on this planet have to drink and is unlikely to kill you. Which is not to say I don't sympathise with you, because I do, but don't tar us all with the same brush! Most of us have fallen into the thing a few times with no great ill effects, but then I must admit I've never swallowed any of it. Anyway, I hope you feel better soon, and enjoy cruising in the future (drily).

[flickadancer]

Please don't! I shall now have to look that up won't I? And scare myself more.

[Dar Kuma]

I would get a second opinion, drinking water like that could actually kill you, seek professional medical help immediately.

 

hope you are ok.

[lynalldisocvery]

Same on the tidal side of the river medway, i was changing anodes nov last year in my wet suit moored to a barge and and my nose was just above the water and the water stank, worse still i could see all the crap heading towards me!

I stank when i got out, wife had to hose me down, not a pretty site.

 

 

Lynall

[flickadancer]

Like I said in my original posting, I'm sure most of you are like Arthur Marshall and DON'T empty your sewage into the canal. We certainly don't and have both a pump out and an elsan on board. But reread it carefully and you will see that I have evidence that some people do.

Flicka

[Guest]

Please don't! I shall now have to look that up won't I? And scare myself more.

 

It's very very rare and and transmitted by the urine of an infected animal.

 

The initial symptoms are like flu and it is often missed because of it being so rare and it often just getting passed off as flu. If it had been me I would have made the suggestion, did you undergo any sort of blood tests??

Edited April 20, 2013 by The Dog House

[flickadancer]

Thanks and I'll watch out for it but basically I have been sitting on the loo a lot and puking although the puking has now stopped.

[bowten]

Next time yer fall in keep yer mouth shut.

[Guest]

Thanks and I'll watch out for it but basically I have been sitting on the loo a lot and puking although the puking has now stopped.

 

Doesn't sound like Leptospirosis then - more like the ingestion of waterborne bacteria related to something else.

Edited April 20, 2013 by The Dog House

[flickadancer]

Quite gross frankly although one of my friends did suggest that I could now fall in again and be immune but I am NOT about to test that one out!

[Jerra]

I don't think many of us put our sewage into the canal, especially the people who actually live on it. It would seem a bit counterproductive! However, cows certainly do, swimming dogs probably do, and so do the fish. There is also algae which is dangerous to swallow, and run offs from the fertilisers and muck spread on the farmland (some of which can be untreated human waste).

You have missed mentioning the dog walkers who rather than collect it in a bag flick it into the canal.

 

However last time I mentioned that on mthe forum many seemed to think it was an acceptable practice.

[carlt]

You have missed mentioning the dog walkers who rather than collect it in a bag flick it into the canal.

 

However last time I mentioned that on mthe forum many seemed to think it was an acceptable practice.

Knowing what my dog eats I would suggest that it has far less health implications than the rubbish that we feed the wildlife that craps in the canal and landfilling non-compostable bags of shit is far more disgusting than letting it bio-degrade in the hedge or canal.

 

Around formal moorings, however I pick up my dog's mess in compostable poo-bags and dispose of it either at home or the nearest bin.

 

I can't speak for other dog owners of course.

[nb Innisfree]

We use it for making stew, just add a dead rat and a tablespoon of towpath sweepings and you have a nourishing meal...mmmm....

[Doug Scullery]

Please post the photo of the boater emtying the Elsan here, that is totally unacceptable and if it's anybody I can track down I will go and have "words". As for the snobby comments about "dirty boaters" that haven't moved all winter, I'm sorry you got ill and all but get over yourself, not moving your boat is not evidence of emtying sewage into the canal, I have a cassette toilet and often empty it at official points without moving the boat. Sure you have a photo of someone emtying a cassette into the canal and maybe that person is a "dirty boater" that hasn't moved all winter and bla bla bla but that doesn't mean all "dirty boaters" that haven't moved all winter would do something that disgusting, if you, like many, have a chip on your shoulder about bridgehoppinghippytypeswithrustyboatsthatlikenevermoveblablabla then that's a completely seperate issue to the dumping of sewage. As it happens I have two friends have seen people dumping sewage in the waterways, one was a very smart widebeam on a permanent towpath mooring self pumping into the canal in the dead of night and the other was a very upmarket Dutch barge with a sea toilet who moored in a marina and went for a little river cruise every few weeks and dump it there rather than buy pumpout cards. So certainly not the "dirty boaters" you are so keen to blame.

 

Totally with you on the sewage issue but the keeness to blame every bad thing that happens on those with less money than you makes me (figuratively) sick.

 

I hope you get well soon.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Doug Scullery

[madcat]

I used to moor at locations that had no elsan disposal and it was dead easy to take the bog bucket to the correct place in my van. Bit of fun to be had if the bizzies had wanted to know what I was carrying. I always took a neighbour if they needed, nobody ever tipped it in the cut. Who would want to moor in a sewer.

[Bimbly1]

Same on the tidal side of the river medway, i was changing anodes nov last year in my wet suit moored to a barge and and my nose was just above the water and the water stank, worse still i could see all the crap heading towards me!

I stank when i got out, wife had to hose me down, not a pretty site.

 

 

Lynall

 

Come come, you shouldn't upset her, I'm sure that your wife is a pretty sight.

[ditchcrawler]

I used to moor at locations that had no elsan disposal and it was dead easy to take the bog bucket to the correct place in my van. Bit of fun to be had if the bizzies had wanted to know what I was carrying. I always took a neighbour if they needed, nobody ever tipped it in the cut. Who would want to moor in a sewer.

Its unbelievable what some people seem happy to live in. I wouldn't think it was a widespread problem but I am sure some people do it. I have been in houses that are full of dog muck. people like that wouldn't be bothered with what does in the canal.

[nb Innisfree]

 

Come come, you shouldn't upset her, I'm sure that your wife is a pretty sight.

Some people just won't take anything serious, you would think that life in general was just a big laugh....

[Chris Pink]

Next time yer fall in keep yer mouth shut.

I'm not sure that would be possible judging by the OP.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Next time yer fall in keep yer mouth shut.

I've just laffed out really loud in a pub at that comment!

 

It is awful falling in. Get checked for that weil's (?) disease people do die from it. Symptoms are flu like.

But I think OP could be suffering a bad pint.

(May have caused the fall in first place)

[Arthur Marshall]

". As for the snobby comments about "dirty boaters" that haven't moved all winter, I'm sorry you got ill and all but get over yourself, not moving your boat is not evidence of emtying sewage into the canal, (snip) if you, like many, have a chip on your shoulder about bridgehoppinghippytypeswithrustyboatsthatlikenevermoveblablabla then that's a completely seperate issue to the dumping of sewage. (snip) So certainly not the "dirty boaters" you are so keen to blame.

 

Totally with you on the sewage issue but the keeness to blame every bad thing that happens on those with less money than you makes me (figuratively) sick.

 

I hope you get well soon.

I think that's a bit over the top... I get the impression the first post was written in a certain amount of upset and rage while being stuck for a couple of days on the bog! And allowances should therefore be made... I have been known to have a rant at stuff myself in the heat of the moment, and I am, as all who know me will attest, the most patient and tolerant of men.