Sewage leak emergency in Wembley tower block

Families living in a  council building said they were faced with “bits of poo” floating outside their flats following an hours-long sewage leak earlier this week. 

Residents of Lexington tower block in Wembley said ongoing plumbing issues in their building – managed by Brent Council – led to the “nightmare” situation.

Mother Nora, who did not wish to give her surname, said raw sewage came up to her ankles with human waste floating along her corridor. 

When the Local Democracy Reporting Service visited the tower block, there was a strong smell of sewage in the hallways. Nora said: “It was an absolute nightmare, it was so disgusting. I had to take my toddler through it and my son, who is less than six months old, woke up with conjunctivitis so we had to get to the doctor. 

“All this time there will have been contamination. This is the latest issue we’ve had here.”

Nora added that it was a struggle to get hold of the council, which meant the problems were left overnight. She said: “It was incredibly frustrating. We couldn’t get through to them for hours." 

One of her neighbours, Ilyeh Mahdi, said she managed to miss most of the problems as she was out working. But she said she could notice the smell when she came back, so much so that it “made her eyes water”.

Ilyeh added that what is “particularly shocking” is the fact the building is only around a year old but continues to have issues with drainage.

Videos emerged on social media on Wednesday showing water seeping out of an overflowing toilet in one of the Lexington flats. Those living there suggested the council only chose to act once the incident had gone viral online and they urged it to “believe us” when problems are reported in the first place. 

A Brent Council spokesperson said it would carry out a deep clean of the affected areas and had rehoused those in the flats that were hit particularly hard. The spokesperson added: “As soon as we were alerted to the problem yesterday, we dispatched an engineer to make urgent repairs and to remove the blockage. 

“Officers were on-site talking to residents all day and delivered letters to flats with advice about the communal areas that were affected. When our engineers left yesterday, it appeared the issues had been resolved."