MORE than 2,000 hospitality businesses across Devon and Cornwall have been supported by South West Water to help prevent fat, oils and grease from entering the region’s sewers.

With Unblocktober coming to a close and Christmas just around the corner, South West Water, is highlighting practical steps that everyone can take to keep drains clear, prevent flooding, and protect the environment.

In the last year alone, the water company cleared over 7,000 avoidable blockages – with three-quarters caused predominantly by just two things: wet wipes and fats.

When fat, oils and grease mix with items like wet wipes, sanitary products, and food waste that is flushed or poured down drains, it can form stubborn blockages.

If left unchecked, these blockages can grow into giant, concrete-like fatbergs – the most extreme form of sewer blockage.

These blockages can cause flooding, unpleasant odours, pollution in rivers and seas, as well as costly damage to the sewer network.

Through its partnership with Environmental Compliance and Services (ECAS), South West Water has supported 2,203 food service establishments to manage FOG responsibly.

ECAS works on behalf of South West Water to support businesses, both proactively by visiting food service establishments which are in known blockage hotspots, and reactively when problems like blockages are reported to or identified by South West Water’s teams.

Environmental Enforcement Officers visit businesses across the South West and talk to kitchen staff about their daily practices and how they’re currently disposing of their FOG.

ECAS will then often recommend actions that the business needs to take going forward. For example, they might need to install grease-trapping equipment, improve their cooking oil storage or change their daily kitchen practices.

Richard Price, Managing Director for Wastewater Services at South West Water, said: ‘Preventing blockages benefits the whole community.

‘It keeps our rivers and seas clean and prevents flooding and disruption for homes and businesses across the region.

‘That’s why we are asking customers and business owners across the South West to ‘Bin It, Don’t Block It’.