YORKSHIRE Water have begun a project to reduce the risk and impact of sewer flooding in homes and the local environment.

The utility company will be installing 35,000 Technolog customer sewer alarms at properties across Yorkshire.

The move follows a successful pilot project of 5,000 devices in Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Doncaster, which won the Institute of Water North Region Innovation award.

Once installed, the customer sewer alarms will monitor the water level within the combined sewer gullies using a pressure sensor which sends an alert remotely when an increase in level is identified. The devices use a wireless network to enable Yorkshire Water teams to identifying trends in how the sewers are performing.

Henry Dixon, business transformation manager at Yorkshire Water, said: “This project represents a significant investment and forms a key part of our ambition to increase the technology in operation across our network. The devices will provide vital insight into the performance of the network, allowing our teams to monitor flows and understand network performance remotely."

The project will allow Yorkshire Water teams to quickly analyse, identify and proactively respond to increases in sewer levels which and are often signs that precede sewage escaping the network onto streets or into people’s homes.