A monster ‘fatberg’ made up of congealed fat, wet wipes, nappies and condoms has been found clogging up London’s sewers.
Thames Water, the company responsible for the waste and water of London, shared pictures of the 820-foot blockage on Tuesday saying that it would take three weeks to remove.
They added that it weighs 130 tons, about the same as a blue whale or 11 of London’s double-decker buses, and is longer than one of the capital’s most famous bridges, London Bridge.
Our version of a walking tour of London: see for yourself the monster #Fatberg everyone's talking about: pic.twitter.com/LNd81wAliO
— Thames Water 💧 (@thameswater) September 12, 2017
“It’s basically like trying to break up concrete,” Matt Rimmer, the company’s head of waste networks, told the BBC. He added that the waste was avoidable and that people should bin waste like fat, oil and grease instead of washing it down the sink.
Eight workers will use high-pressure hoses to break up the mass, suck up the pieces into tankers and take it to a recycling site elsewhere in the U.K.