Creepy doll in Exmouth leads South West Water’s spooky sewer finds

Somewhere beneath Exmouth, a sewer stopped flowing. When the team went down to find out why, a pair of blue eyes stared back.

The baby doll, caked in muck and wedged in the pipe, is one of a handful of strange discoveries South West Water has revealed ahead of Halloween. It is a glimpse of what turns up in the network when things go down toilets and drains that were never meant to.

What turned up in the pipes

The finds came to light during routine maintenance and investigations across the region, where teams regularly come across items that have no business being in a sewer.

The recent list includes:

• A creepy baby doll causing a blockage in Exmouth
• A sack of rubble stuffed into a sewer
• A pair of pants discovered in a pipe in Exeter
• A lone shoe recovered from a sewer
• A children’s toy buried among concrete underground

Some of it is bizarre. But each one is the kind of thing that can turn a small problem into a much bigger one.

25,000 kilometres of sewers to keep moving

Every day, South West Water teams work behind the scenes to keep more than 25,000 kilometres of sewers flowing across the region.

That means investigating reports of blockages, carrying out repairs, maintaining the network and responding to incidents, around the clock, to protect homes, businesses, communities and the environment.

When a strange find becomes a real problem

A doll in a drain might raise a smile. What it does to the pipe is less funny.

Items that get into the sewer network can become trapped, causing blockages and restricting the flow of wastewater. Those blockages raise the risk of sewer flooding, can disrupt services for customers and can contribute to pollution incidents.

And unlike a Halloween horror story, these problems don’t disappear when the lights come on.

“Think before you flush”

Jay Harris, Wastewater Director at South West Water, said: “A baby doll blocking a sewer is certainly one of the more unusual things we’ve come across recently, but our teams often find items that simply shouldn’t be in the sewer network.

“Every day our teams work behind the scenes to keep the network flowing and protect the environment, often dealing with the consequences of things that have been incorrectly flushed or disposed of.

“While some discoveries can be surprising, they highlight an important message. The sewer network is designed to carry wastewater, and unexpected items can cause blockages that put pressure on the network and increase the risk of pollution.

“That’s why we’re encouraging everyone to think before they flush this Hallowe’en and help keep the network flowing.”

The water company is reminding customers to flush only the three Ps (pee, poo and paper) and to dispose of everything else responsibly. More guidance is on its Bin it, don’t block it page.

As for the shoe, nobody has said where the other one went.