Monitors give Yorkshire Water the low down on sewers

TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

Yorkshire Water has begun a project to reduce the risk and impact of sewer flooding in homes and the local environment.

The utility company will be installing 35,000 customer sewer alarms at properties across its region. The move follows a pilot project of 5,000 devices in Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Doncaster.

The sewer alarms will monitor the water level within the combined sewer gullies and send an alert wirelessly when it detects an increase in level that can precede sewage escapes onto streets or into people’s homes. And, the company said, they will “provide vital insight into the performance of the network.”

Yorkshire said the pilot helped to prevent sewer flooding in homes and gardens, and alerted it to blockages before they caused a problem.