Battersea residents speak out over last week's flash floods

Home and business owners near Queenstown Road, SW8, are appealing to Thames Water after extreme flooding wreaked havoc in their basements on Sunday (July 25). 

Residents in a handful of streets – including Prairie Street, Ingelow Road, Thackeray Road, Emu Road and Robertson Street - regularly suffer from floods during heavy downpours because sewers and drains serving the area cannot cope with sudden and prolonged rainfall. 

One resident of Prairie Street whose basement was recently inundated with water contacted Wandsworth Council leader, Cllr Govindia, to air his grievances. 

A foot and a half of water flooded into this cellar last weekend

He complained that his cellar had been flooded eight times since 1993. 

The Battersea resident said: “It would be tempting to think of this as exceptional, but it isn't. The basement of my house was flooded in 1993, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2007, 2016 (twice) and now 2021 (one and a half feet of water). Thames Water are fully aware of this and I also have correspondence to support this. Indeed, at one stage, in 1999, works were planned but cancelled. 

“It appears that it is very difficult to get Thames Water to take their responsibilities seriously. It is hard report a flood to them and I have been told that, ridiculously, they do not accept a report of flooding unless you do so within 24 hours. As I type this, I have now waited nearly two hours for them to answer the phone – still waiting and soon I will have to give up. 

“It seems ridiculous that regular flash flooding that has been going on for at least 30 years, on average every three and half years, has not been sorted yet.”

Thames Water has said clean up teams have been working in Battersea since Sunday, and apologised for wait times being longer than usual.  

However, Council Leader Ravi Govindia asked the utility company to “stop fobbing off” residents.

He said: “They know there is a serious problem in this part of Battersea. They have known about it for more than 20 years but done nothing to help residents and businesses who regularly suffer flooding from these sudden downpours. 

A Battersea bus hit by recent floods

“They have simply abandoned their responsibilities and left residents and shopkeepers in states of high anxiety every time there is a weather warning. It is an intolerable situation and needs to be put right without any further delay.” 

Thames Water stressed that different authorities are responsible for different elements of drainage and flood management. 

A spokesperson said: “The extreme weather which caused widespread flooding has been devastating for many people, and we sympathise with everyone affected.      

“Having flood water in your home or garden, or in the street outside is really distressing, and we continue to visit customers across London to help them get their lives back to normal.   

“We’ve been cleaning roads, pavements and properties in Battersea since Sunday, and had three further clean-up crews in the area on Wednesday, and we will be back Thursday if needed.   

“We’re trying to get to everyone as quickly as possible but due to the scale of the flooding, this is taking a little longer than normal in some cases. Our call centre is also exceptionally busy and we’re really sorry if you’ve had to wait a long time to speak to someone.   

“We share flood risk responsibilities with a range of organisations across London, including local councils, highways authorities and the Environment Agency, and we look forward to continuing working with them on viable and sustainable solutions to combat two of the main causes of flooding – climate change and population growth.   

“At Nine Elms in Battersea we’ve built a new 1.1km surface water sewer which takes the pressure off the combined network, installed new two pumping stations, and created 2,265m3 of ‘attenuation’ which stores and slowly releases storm water back into the sewer system.”