‘People yearn for stability’: the Thames Water sewage plant at frontline of its crisis

Weighed down by underinvestment and uncertainty, staff at Maple Lodge just want to get on with the job It is a grey day in a wet week but one of Thames Water’s neglected plants is still coping. Wastewater is being pumped into the vast Maple Lodge sewage treatment centre in Rickmansworth, just off the M25, at a rate of about 3,000 litres a second, within capacity. The site manager points out the first-line screens that catch everything that will not pass through a 5mm filter. A “sheep” – a bun...

By Nils Pratley