Oswestry · SY10, SY11

Emergency Drainage in Oswestry

What to do first when a tank overflows, sewage backs up or a drain floods, and how to reach a local specialist once the immediate risk is contained. Serving Oswestry and the surrounding villages, including Whittington, Gobowen, St Martin’s, Trefonen.

Call 01743 562954 Describe your problem

Photo: Peter Broster · CC BY 2.0

Some drainage problems can wait for a convenient appointment. Sewage backing up into a bathroom cannot. Neither can an overflowing septic tank or cesspit, a collapsed drain flooding a yard, or a treatment plant in alarm at a holiday let.

Drainage emergencies in the border hills carry two local complications: distance and water. Help is further away than in the lowlands, so the first-minutes basics — stop water going in, keep people and animals away from what has escaped, never open or enter a tank — matter even more. And because upland streams here feed the Vyrnwy and Severn quickly, effluent reaching any ditch or brook should go straight to the Environment Agency hotline while the source is being dealt with.

Off-mains drainage is everywhere in the Oswestry hinterland. The upland villages west of the town were never economical to sewer, and even larger settlements have unsewered edges. Border properties often date from an era when a brick-built tank and a pipe to the nearest ditch was standard practice, an arrangement the 2020 rules now require owners to change.

How emergency drainage works, in full →

Access and practicalities around Oswestry

The uplands are the test here: single-track lanes with passing places, steep gradients and farmyards designed for a horse and cart. What a full tanker can and cannot do on these hills decides how a job is planned, from hose runs to the timing of a visit.

Local watercourses around Oswestry

The area drains towards the Severn and the Vyrnwy, through a mesh of upland streams and field ditches. Watercourse proximity is the norm rather than the exception around Oswestry, which makes the General Binding Rules a live issue for a great many tanks in these hills.

What to do right now

Stop using water in the property. No toilets, showers, dishwasher or washing machine, because every litre that goes in has to come out somewhere
Keep people and animals well away from standing sewage, and wash hands and any skin that has touched it thoroughly
Never enter a septic tank, cesspit or treatment plant, and never lean in. These are confined spaces holding hydrogen sulphide and methane, and the air in them can kill in seconds
Keep tank covers closed and secure, and keep children and pets away from any cover that has been lifted or damaged
If sewage is reaching a ditch, stream, brook or river, report it to the Environment Agency incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60, which is staffed around the clock
If effluent has entered the house, shut off the affected rooms and keep it away from anywhere food is prepared or stored
Photograph the affected area before any clean-up, for your insurer and for whoever attends
Note when it started and what changed just before, because that is the first thing any contractor will ask

Around Oswestry

As well as Oswestry itself, the surrounding villages and farms are covered, including Whittington, Gobowen, St Martin’s, Trefonen, Pant, Llanymynech, Kinnerley, Ruyton-XI-Towns, Weston Rhyn. If you are somewhere smaller or somewhere between, get in touch anyway.