Dead animals found in canal where children row

Residents in Brentford have raised concerns about sewage flowing into the local canal network, with dead animals washing up over the summer.

Paul Keane, general manager of watersports charity Brentford Community Boathouse, told the Brentford and Syon Area Forum that the problem had been worsened by the "epidemic of heat" this summer.

The animals were mostly found in the Brentford Lock basin, where the Grand Union Canal meets the River Thames.

"We saw dead foxes, dead ducks and there was a dead cat," Keane told BBC London.

"Because of the stagnant water and the fact that the water wasn't travelling anywhere, we were going past them every day in exactly the same spot."

Brentford Community Boathouse events officer Kelly Everden, who volunteered on a clean-up operation organised by Keane, said the children who used the canal were worst affected.

"It's really upsetting on behalf of the children, because that's not anything that they should ever be faced with, especially with a pet cat," she said.

Keane said the problem was at least partly down to misconnections, where plumbing from housing developments is wrongly linked to surface water drains rather than sewers, sending untreated waste into waterways.

本文の著作権はBBCにあります。