Southampton dad hits out at Southern Water over faeces in driveway

Car dealer Tomasz Zacharkiewicz battled with Southern Water for two weeks after finding faeces floating outside his house in Norham Avenue, Shirley. 

The 38-year-old said the issue was "embarrassing" and left his house stinking.

"I could not walk from my car to my house without treading in someone's faeces," he said.

Southern Water has apologised for the disruption and has since been out to clear Tomasz' driveway.

It's believed works to replace ageing pipes in nearby Winchester Road were to blame.

The drain from which the sewage poured onto the drive (Image: Ross Marshall)

'Our house stinks'

On Friday September 29, Tomasz stepped out of his front door to find sewage - and faeces - bursting from the drain.

He said: "My wife called me in tears, the smell was so horrible. Our house stinks. It is embarrassing for me and my family when people walk past our house.

"I don’t want children at my kids’ school to say ‘you live in that smelly house’ or ‘you live in the house where poo runs down the street’.

"I could not walk from my car to my house without treading in someone's faeces.

"I was trying to call Southern Water for two weeks, every day, spending hours on the phone getting transferred from person to person.

"We could not live like that for a minute longer. Even the inside of my home filled with the smell of faeces and sewage. You could not even open a window as the smell was worse outside.

"It is also an environmental problem and could cause me or my family to get ill.

"I have had to take a lot of time out of work for this – I need to be on the phone to customers not Southern Water.

"I was told Sothern Water concreted the wrong pipe causing a blockage in the system."

The sewage flooded the family's garage for two weeks (Image: Tomasz Zacharkiewicz)

Tomasz said Southern Water initially suggested they had blocked the drain with cigarette butts, something he denies.

“First of all, no-one in my family smokes. The butts have come through the sewage that is spilling onto my driveway."

Southern Water's response

On Friday October 13, Southern Water came out to clear the sewage from Tomasz’ driveway and down the side of the house.

A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “We’re investigating a report of external flooding. We’re looking into whether this was down to any of the work we have started in the area.

“We know how distressing flooding can be and our first priority is to protect customers homes and gardens from flooding which is why we’re carrying out this work at Winchester Road currently.

“We’re sorry for the continued disruption this is causing in the area.”