A man has spotted what appears to be sewage streaming into a Marlow river amid Thames Water sewer repair works.
Marlow resident Richard Tate snapped a photo on Wednesday, June 28 of yellow discoloured water streaming into a river next to the A404 bridge and opposite the Longridge Activity Centre in Marlow.
He shared the photo in the Marlow Life Facebook group, where fellow residents reacted in shock and concern, with many people assuming it to be sewage flooding into their waterways and one person branding it "a disgusting way to treat our rivers".
Thames Water, recently revealed to be at risk of collapse amid a £14 billion debt, has come under fire over the past year for discharging raw sewage into UK waterways.
The utility company recently closed the northbound lane on the A404 between Marlow and Bisham for 4 weeks while waste was transported from a collapsed sewer in the town to the Little Marlow Sewage Treatment Works.
According to a representative from Thames Water, the discoloured water being discharged from overground pipes near the A404 is not sewage waste but instead water from groundwater flooding in Gossmore Lane that needs to be diverted before the collapsed sewer repairs can resume.
A spokesperson from the company said: "Due to high levels of groundwater in the area, we are carrying out a dewatering exercise to divert this water to the river and clear the excavation area.
"We'd like to assure our customers that this is not wastewater being discharged into the river and this action has been approved by the Environment Agency."
The spokesperson added that the water may be discoloured due to the soil it is mixed with.
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