A COWLEY woman had sewage bubbling up through her shower for 12 days before a housing firm fixed the problem.

Joyce Pottinger, of Owens Way, said she had suffered ill health as a result of prolonged exposure to the contaminated waste.

Extreme weather was blamed when her home flooded on Friday, November 23, but Catalyst Housing could not completely fix the issue until Wednesday.

Living on the bottom floor meant Mrs Pottinger had to wade through other people’s waste water which had found its way into her drain system.

Whenever the resident living above Mrs Pottinger let out a bath, foul sewage water would spill up through her walk-in shower.

The 75-year-old widow had laid down a dozen towels in an attempt to soak up the sewage water but it had spilled out into her hallway and soaked the carpet.

Catalyst said two sewage system pumps had broken, possibly due to the weather, and, again due to the weather, the association had problems getting a plumber out quickly.

The organisation has now professionally cleaned her hallway and bathroom and her carpet will be replaced after the hallway has dried out.

Mrs Pottinger said: “I am relieved but I am so tired because I have not had any sleep worrying about it coming through in the night and flooding the whole flat out.”

She said her son had tried to use a mop to clean out the water in the bathroom but it was coming through quicker than he was able to clean it on Monday.

He filled a 15 litre bucket four times before it finally stopped.

Mrs Pottinger, who suffers from osteoarthritis and uses a walker to get around, added: “I am concerned it might happen again, but we will have to wait and see. But it should have been sorted out on Friday.”

She said she had been too scared to use her washing machine or shower over the weekend in case her house flooded, but said her toilet had been working.

Mrs Pottinger said she first contacted Catalyst about the problem on the Friday at about 6pm.

Catalyst property service manager Michael Young said: “Recently, an unlikely dual fault occurred in the sewage system at Owens Way which we believe to be due to the extreme weather. This unfortunately caused a number of drainage problems within the building.

“We acted quickly to fix the issue and we will be investigating the fault to try and ensure it doesn’t occur again.”