Temporary dam clogged with wrongly flushed toilet waste

Scottish Water's project to improve the River Kelvin's waste infrastructure has restarted.

29th Jun 2020

A temporary dam on the River Kelvin has become clogged with waste that shouldn’t have been flushed down the toilet during lockdown.

Scottish Water’s bid to improve the river’s water quality, which runs through Glasgow’s west end, restarted on Monday.

During the three-month lockdown break, a temporary dam installed as part of the project ended up full of rubbish.

Scottish Water said the build-up was caused by items such as baby wipes and cotton buds being wrongly flushed away.

Ruaridh MacGregor, corporate affairs manager in Scottish Water’s west region, said: “The amount of rubbish which has gathered at the temporary dam during the break on this project clearly demonstrates the need for the improvement work to take place.

“However, it would also be good if people didn’t flush these items in the first place.

“Products such as wet wipes, cotton wool and cotton buds don’t disintegrate in our network and can cause flooding and environmental issues.

“We ask everyone to only flush the 3Ps – that’s Pee, Poo and (toilet) Paper.

“Everything else should go in the bin.”

The new infrastructure being installed at 11 locations along the River Kelvin will help prevent items such as rags, baby wipes and plastic cotton buds from overflowing into the river during storms.