A clean-up operation to stop sewage from spewing into a Tottenham waterway is almost complete.

Dirty water has been flowing into the River Moselle from homes and other buildings due to faulty drain connections.

Efforts to clean up the river, which runs through Lordship Recreation Ground and into the River Lea, have been going on for more than a year.

But while many of the problems have been dealt with, the council says it will take time for the river to fully recover.

Liberal Democrat councillor for Fortis Green Cllr Justin Hinchcliffe filmed pollution in the river on June 18 and called on the council to take urgent action.

He said: “The council and its partners need to take urgent steps to tackle these dirty leaks and save our waterfowl.

“I welcome the work that has already been carried out, but it is clear more needs to be done.”

Enfield Independent:

Haringey Council said “every action” was being taken to speed up the clean-up process.

The council’s Housing Improvement Team has been working on the drainage misconnections alongside Thames Water and the Environment Agency.

Thames Water has so far identified 77 residential properties that were polluting the River Moselle and referred them to Haringey Council for further investigation.

So far, the drains have been fixed on 65 properties and the remaining 12 are being investigated.

Around 90,000 litres of wastewater were being discharged into the surface water system every day by Alexandra Primary School in Wood Green, with the sewage eventually finding its way into the Moselle.

The school’s drains were fixed in February.

Haringey Council’s Parks Development Team has also removed contaminated silt from the open section of the Moselle that runs through Lordship Recreation Ground.

A council spokesperson said: “The rectification and clean-up of the Moselle is a multifaceted project that has taken several months to complete.

“It is important to note that due to the level of pollution that was passing through Lordship Recreation Ground, it will take a period of time for the river to recover.

“Every action to speed up this process has been taken by Haringey Council. Going forward, Thames Water will be sampling the water quality of the Moselle once the number of recorded misconnections is fewer than ten.

“They will also be restarting the project and testing for new misconnections affecting the river. The misleading signs are due to be removed in the near future.”