Eideard

OK, boys. Turn ‘em loose!

Trillions of bacteria with a taste for turkey fat and cooking oil are being unleashed in sewers to eat the annual onslaught of Christmas dinner grease that risks blocking pipes.

Yorkshire Water said it was deploying the “biological weapon” of bacillus bacteria – commonly found in the human gut – in its sewer network in an attempt to prevent blockages, which typically increase by 25pc over the festive season.

The company began pouring vats of water mixed with the bacteria down sewers at known trouble spots last week and is rolling out the treatment at 180 sites in Yorkshire.

Sewer blockages cost the water industry tens of millions of pounds a year, with many due to hot fat, oil and grease being poured down the drains and then solidifying. The fat also binds with non-biodegradable rubbish flushed down toilets, causing blockages which can make sewage flood back up into homes.

The fatty build-ups are usually cleared out manually with high-pressure water jets. With the likely increase in fat over Christmas, the company was turning to “new and innovative methods”.

Patrick Killgallon, pollution manager at Yorkshire Water said the utility was confident that the ” ‘good’ bacteria, literally feasting on solidified fat” would be cost-effective and could potentially end all such blockages.

“Because these bacteria constantly multiply in the right environment, we can leave them to get on with their job in our sewers, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, without the need for regular dosing,” he said.

Next up? Little nano-boats filled with bacteria volunteers to navigate your own body’s plumbing.