Along the winding course of the Thames, this corner of Berkshire looks like an English postcard. On this still cool and humid April day, the yellow of the rapeseed fields competes with the anise green of the willows or the purple of the wild hyacinths. Furrowed with chalk streamsstreams appearing when the overflow of groundwater rises through faults in the chalky soil (a geological rarity), the countryside is radiant.
But appearances are deceiving: “Who could believe we have been living like this for four months? »says Moz Bulbeck Reynolds, a resident of the village of Eastbury, with a sigh, pointing to the road separating three charming cottages (including hers, in the middle) from the Lambourn, a chalk stream at an abnormally rapid flow for the season.
The road is covered in dirty water in which ribbons of toilet paper float, a manhole sporadically overflows in great bubbles onto the asphalt. “We regularly see fecal matter appear, coming directly from toilet flushes. It’s filthy. We have to disinfect my dog’s paws every time we go for a walk,” explains Mme Bulbeck Reynolds.
” Slow down ! Slow down ! », shout at the attention of the cars Carolyne Culver and Steve Masters, two local Green elected officials who came to check on him. Despite the panels DIYed by Moz, vehicles regularly soil the facades of the cottages. “Welcome to England of the 21ste century ! It feels like a Dickens novel. All this because the sewer networks, some of which date from the Victorian era, have not been resized in the last thirty years. They are still designed to receive rainwater, in addition to dirty water. They saturate as soon as it rains”says Steve Masters, member of the town council of Newbury, capital of West Berkshire.
Unsustainable debts
The tanker from Thames Water, Britain’s largest water company, responsible for supplying drinking water and treating wastewater in the Thames Valley and London, has just left. Moz Bulbeck Reynolds has gotten into the habit of calling him when the sewers overflow. “It sucks up the overflow and will reject it a little further. But the dirty water comes back very quickly”deplores the young woman, originally from Australia, who dreams of living in the surrounding hills, because, “in the valley, the land is saturated with water”. “Thames Water has not taken into account population growth, and climate change is making the situation worse. The rainfall has been considerable since last fall, and the chalk streams do not become empty »adds Mr. Masters, a veteran of the Royal Air Force converted to environmental activism.
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