Oxford mum fears for son's health amid severe sewage floods

Campbell Road in Cowley was submerged by torrential flooding on Friday (October 13) with a county councillor who was present estimating at least 30 houses were affected.

Many of the homes belong to pensioners and families with young children, several of whom told Charlie Hicks, county councillor for Cowley, that the area has been prone to floods for at least 20 years.

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“Residents have told me the flooding in the area has become more frequent and more severe,” said Mr Hicks.

Householder Sonu Kaur told the Oxford Mail this is the sixth flood that’s occurred in the road since she and her family moved there in 2021, and the third to happen since June this year.

Mrs Kaur, who’s lived in Oxford for 15 years, said: “This is the worst flood we’ve had here. Worst of all we had loads of sewage come up through the drain in our back garden. This has happened in previous floods too.

“I have an inflammatory condition which affects my heart and lungs and my medication causes immunosuppression, so having sewage in the garden and flowing through the streets is not ideal.

“During a flood and sewage outpour we had in June which covered the whole street, my eight-year-old son had to walk through filthy water filled with toilet paper and waste to get to school.

“After an hour I had a call saying he’d been violently sick.

“Now, he’s begun to associate rain with feeling sick because he thinks it will bring up sewage again. We were so excited to move here – because we didn’t have a garden at our old house – but now my son is scared to go in it.”

On this latest occasion, Mr Hicks said himself and householders on Campbell Road could see sewage bubbling up out of manhole covers with toilet paper in it and a foul smell coming from the water.

Mrs Kaur added: “On Friday we had our normal sewage flood from the drain in the back garden, plus the water from the street started flowing through and spreading the waste.

“It was horrendous. The whole of our back and front gardens, and the street, were covered.

“It was coming up past the doorstep, about an inch and a half into the house. We could see toilet paper floating around.”

Mr Hicks said: “Householders are rightfully very upset and angry about the very severe sewage water flooding on Campbell Road on Friday night.

“This repeated flooding of disgusting, dirty, foul water could be causing harm to the health and wellbeing of those living in the homes, especially young children.

“Householders are also unfairly bearing the financial costs for these water infrastructure failures, with their home insurance costs going up to cover the clean ups.

“On October 5, I attended a meeting with householders, Thames Water, the Environment Agency, and the County and City Councils to discuss this ongoing issue.”

Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds said: "“I was really concerned to see that Campbell Road, and a number of other locations, were once again affected by flooding last week.

"This is an ongoing issue that residents there are desperate to get sorted.

"It is horrible that they have yet again experienced foul water flooding, with this becoming a disturbingly more frequent occurrence. I have previously raised this with Thames Water on their behalf, and I will continue to do so until they get a solution that means this problem is sorted once and for all."

A Thames Water spokesperson said: “We’re sorry to customers affected by external sewer flooding on Campbell Road in Cowley, following significant heavy rainfall on Friday.

“Our engineers visited the road on the day of the reported flooding and organised tankers to pump away the floodwater from customers’ gardens and have since been supporting with clean-ups.

“We carry out sewer maintenance in the area to ensure our network is working as it should however in instances of heavy rainfall this can become overwhelmed and we apologise for the disruption this has caused.”

Householders in Barton Village Road, Barton, also experienced severe flooding on Friday night.

The water submerged the street after torrential rain caused a nearby brook to overflow.

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1