A THOUSAND ornamental fish on the Waterside Estate in Passfield have been killed after raw sewage leaked into the River Wey and nearby fields.

The sewage came from a Thames Water manhole cover in a field next to the Waterside Estate which burst on Saturday morning with raw effluent pouring into the River Wey.

WatersideÕs estate manager Robert Lawrence attempted to alert Thames Water on the Saturday morning but told The Herald that the emergency number failed to be answered.

He finally managed to get hold of the water company which came out in the afternoon and stopped the sewage flow.

However, the leak started up again in the early hours of Monday morning and spewed raw effluent out over the field, into the water meadow system and into the River Wey.

This continued until Tuesday lunchtime when Thames again came out to deal with the problem.

Mr Lawrence explained that Waterside, owned by Lord Sandberg, has its own Archimedes screw which picks water up from the River Wey and diverts it through WatersideÕs lakes before going back to the river.

Waterside stopped pumping through the screw when the problem first occurred but started it up again when Thames appeared to have put a stop to the problem on Saturday.

Mr Lawrence had hoped that this would flush out the water system in WatersideÕs lakes but instead it had disastrous consequences when the effluent ran into the river in front of the screw.

He said: ÒOur screw picked up the sewage and took it through the lakes. Everything in our lakes has died.

ÒWe have helped defend the river because the sewage has gone through our water system first but it has killed all our fish.Ó

Thousands of pounds worth of fish were wiped out as a result of the sewage leak which robbed them of oxygen.

These have included 80 30-year-old prize coy carp, 600 rainbow trout, and around 100 Japanese carp and other coarse fish.

Almost every fish in WatersideÕs west and east lakes were killed and wildlife in its large six-acre lake and its secret lake were also affected.

Mr Lawrence said: ÒI do not really know how much all of the fish were worth but it must be thousands of pounds.Ó

Waterside is now embarking on a huge clear-up operation with the dead fish being retrieved and disposed of and the Environment Agency has been working to re-oxygenate both the river and the lakes.

Environmental protection officers have been concentrating their efforts on the west lake where they are battling to save the few fish from the lakes which did not die.

Work, expected to last at least a week, has also begun to drain the affected lakes and river areas of the sewage and contaminated silt before the lakes can be restocked.

Contractors are also working to clean out nearby sewers.

However, the good news is that the volume of water in the river appears to have diluted and dispersed the waste so that it does not pose a problem to the Deadwater Valley in Bordon and other beauty spots north of Passfield where the river flows towards.

Andrew Boyd from Thames Water told The Herald that a build-up in the sewer was to blame for the incident.

He said: ÒThe cause of the overflow from the manhole was a build-up of fat in the sewer, which had solidified and caused sewage to back up.

ÒWe had major problems accessing the site on Monday due to bridge weight limits and narrow bridleways. It is a difficult area to reach with heavy vehicles.

ÒThe result was that we had to return on Tuesday morning, when our contractors were delayed by a broken hose but the blockage was cleared about 11 am.

ÒThere is no maintenance problem with the man hole cover. The sewerage simply escaped at the easiest point which happened to be from the man hole.

ÒWe are carrying out more cleaning work in the sewer.Ó