Lee stink

THE Lee Navigation is not very pleasant to cruise at the moment around Waltham—it stinks!

High levels of chemicals combined with raw sewage has caused the problem, with the lack of boat movements at the moment not flushing it away. Alan Tilbury reveals.

Tributaries

It seems the tributaries of the river are to blame, with various streams feeding the waterway having 'severe problems with water quality'.  So bad that tests showed that fish could not survive through lack of oxygen.

Part of the blame, announced a British Waterways spokesman was that people were having extensions built on their houses but having their bathrooms plumbed in in the wrong way, with toilets connected to surface water drains instead of sewage outlets, so toilets were being flushed  into the waterways.