Derry family at 'wits end' with sewage coming through garden for 3 years

The couple, who have two young children, fear for the worst any time rain is forecast and have set up a barricade to minimise the damage to their garden. They say they have lost thousands of pounds worth of children’s toys, garden furniture and equipment and that the homeowner has even gotten sick from dealing with the issue.

NI Water, who are responsible for the sewage pipe, have been to the property multiple times to temporarily fix the issue. They said they can assure the customer that they are working on developing a solution, but that “the current proposal shows that a reduction in flooding would be achieved but would not fully resolve the problem”.

NI Water added: "We are therefore continuing to work with our modelling team to develop a lasting solution and would like to thank the customer for their patience while this work is ongoing.”

The homeowner described the situation as “absolute hell”, adding: "We came back from holiday on Sunday June 25 and on the Monday we had that heavy bit of rain for five minutes and it burst again. That’s the third time this year and the tenth in total since it started over three and a half years ago. The solution is probably going to be something big that happens a few years down the line so it’s looking like we’ll be dealing with this for years to come.

"We’ve had people come look at the issue, we’ve had diggers in and people working on it but every time they do that, our garden is out of use for two to three weeks. One time we were unable to use it for eight weeks, which is hard with two young children.

"Any time there’s rain forecast, our anxiety is dialled up to 11. I’m pretty easy going but I’m at the stage now where the anxiety is really getting to me. We’ve reached out to local councillors; Darren Guy has been with us from the start, Environmental Health, the Health and Safety Committee – we’re trying everything but we’re not getting anywhere.

"You have normal life stressors going on but this is always there looming over us. There’s so many things we want to do to the house but we can’t with this.”

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