Episode 4 Watermen: A Dirty Business

Getting clean water can be a dirty business...

Nice!

Mmm.

..for the people who run one of Britain's biggest water companies.

They cover over 5,000 square miles

and three million homes.

We follow them through one of the hottest summers on record.

'I've calmed down and I've counted to ten.'

Come in. It's lovely and warm.

Oh, there she goes.

Just one of them things that happens, unfortunately.

Into the unknown.

Do they have men's synchronised swimmers?

-Are you short-staffed?

-No.

-Beautiful!

-It comes out the sea, we get it for nothing,

so why charge everyone for it?

A lot of people think they flush their toilet and they forget it - it disappears.

We're the big hole under everybody's houses where it disappears to.

You go home in such states, sometimes.

Last week me wife made me get changed into me underpants.

-No job's too big or small...

-I think I want to come out now, mate. That'll do.

-..for the watermen.

-Looks like we're going to get wet.

See you in the morning, Wes.

Yeah, see you in the morning, mate!

Just another day in the office!

Across the North West, the company maintain 40,000 miles of sewers.

You are kidding me.

Many were built over 100 years ago.

We've got more demand.

Population has actually tripled in er, the last, I don't know,

100 years or summat.

So, you know, the network of the sewers, you know, isn't big enough.

Some of Blackpool's sewers date back to 1890.

Designed to service 40,000 people,

today during the summer season, it's more like half a million.

Waste-water teams like Andy and Terry work

on 100 square miles of the network.

I watched a thing on TV - you walk past somebody, you go...

-HE YAWNS

-Within like five seconds,

someone at the side starts yawning as well. It's well funny.

-Yeah, mate?

-Nothing, mate.

Go away.

-Go away!

-Proper works!

-No, it doesn't!

-It does.

-I was yawning anyway.

-No, you weren't.

-I was yawning anyway.

Today a pavement has subsided.

The team are checking if a collapsed sewer is to blame.

As you can see, there's a dip in the highway there.

On the footpath.

-You all right, mate?

-I'm sound, me. My mum's 84

and if she falls down there, it'd be claiming.

-Yeah.

-And it keeps collapsing.

-Does it?

Yeah. So they're not doing their job, are they?

Yeah, well, have you got access in your back garden

-we can put a camera down the sewer?

-You can.

Just have a look, make sure there's no issues with the sewer,

-then we can...

-Give us a minute.

-..try and find out why there's a dip in the road.

Three times they've done that.

Right, can you open your back door?

-Oh, yeah, sure.

-Looks like they've filled it in a few times,

but you can see it's... There's a hole right there you can

put your fingers right through, so looks like it's going already.

So, er, we'll have a look, see if there's any issues with

the sewer and then er, go from there, basically.

Ron's up to his usual tricks, sat down.

Mate, there's nothing else I can do, apart from making the street

look pretty, you know what I mean?

What's all this about, anyway?

We're here to see if there's anything wrong with the sewer.

Oh, God.

The Victorian sewers here are notoriously fragile.

Basically, er, if you've got a sewer that runs underneath

and it's partially collapsed,

or there's an open joint, the water can be washing away,

washing away the ground, which is causing the ground to just subside.

So that could be the issue, or it could be another, er, utility issue.

You never know until we get the camera through.

-There's nothing wrong...there's nothing...

-Go on, Mother - in there.

Shut up. There's nothing wrong with that drain.

-He's not...

-Not this one.

-He's not looking at that!

All right, all right, all right, keep your knickers on.

Don't wear knickers!

-You having fun there?

-Yeah, mate.

Is that a metal detector?

-Yeah.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

-Can we borrow it?

Just checking for gold.

Before you start a job, you always check for gold.

I was just basically, I was just checking for a manhole, you know, just...

-There's none over there.

-Rather than going through the gulley,

just in case there was a manhole hidden under here.

There's no good looking for manhole covers over there. There's none there.

Let these dudes do what they're doing.

Come on, come in.

They use the bathroom drainpipe to access the main sewer.

That's the downpipe to the bathroom.

Yeah, yeah, that's right, yeah.

Nothing'll spill once I've finished, I assure you that.

Just don't flush your chain whilst I'm drilling it.

-That all right?

-If you say so, I suppose. As long as you're not going to make a mess of everything.

-No, you'll be fine.

-Here we go, are we ready? We're off, we're going.

Right, stop there. Yeah, cos...

It's dead close to that there, where that void is.

Got to be an issue there, isn't there?

The camera shows that part of the sewer has

caved in near the damaged pavement.

-Ooh! Put your foot in that.

-Nice.

Don't flush your chain, I said - just while we're down here.

Andy and Terry will report the collapse for a repair team to fix.

-Oh, cool.

-I am sick of going to the council and getting nowhere.

Well, at least we're getting somewhere with it today like,

so someone will come along, a dig gang and they'll dig it up.

That's all sorted.

Excellent, excellent.

Across the region, a labyrinth of reservoirs, many over 100 years old,

feed into 25,000 miles of water mains.

Most of them are over 40 years old and are prone to bursts.

Thank you for calling. You're through to Zoe.

Can I take your name, please?

'But we've no hot water, no heating of course.'

-You've got no water at all?

-'No.'

You've got to get used to being shouted at.

Right, I see. OK.

If they're screaming, if they're ranting, if they're swearing,

-I let them.

-'It is a trip hazard, definitely,

'especially with the old lady who's broken her leg next door.'

Some of them would like to have your head on a plate.

'I went up with a bucket. I was worried to death.'

How has it been damaged?

'I honestly do not know.'

It's the job that you do. It's what I signed up for.

And I wouldn't change it for anything.

Lamaload Reservoir in the Peak District

supplies water for up to 9,000 properties in Cheshire.

In Kerridge, one stretch of mains pipes keeps on bursting,

leaving 2,000 properties without water.

Network inspector Mark Sutton is in charge of the repair.

We've had a burst reported.

It's just the ground itself moving - the ground, age,

demand on the system, you know, demand coming on, coming off.

Just one of them things that happens, unfortunately.

So how you want to do it?

It's one, two... so we'll have three joints?

-Four.

-Four, right. Let's go for it.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

It's from the 1970s, this stuff, so it's now having its drawbacks

with being dated and it's become brittle under age.

It's 40-year-old now, so it does have its effect now.

It's the fourth time this year that the village has been without water.

-Well, I want to know when we're going to have some water.

-Yeah.

Unfortunately, it's the main flue again when we repaired it this morning.

It's been an ongoing problem.

We have had this situation occurring for the last few years

with the water pipes bursting and no-one tells us anything.

We're just left to find out that there's no water.

This particular leak arrived ten days ago.

I reported it a week last Monday and it was a small trickle,

and I said, you know, "There's a problem", and nothing happened.

And then if you talk to people at Endon Hall, which is

over there, you know, last night they were really furious

because it's happening too often, and it's just not...

and I don't know what Bollington and Tytherington are doing

because they're the ones that suffer with the loss of water.

PHONE RINGS

Hello, Lindsay Howard.

For some, no water means no business.

Yeah.

Well, as you can see the salon's empty.

We've lost probably two hours' business.

Which is quite a lot, really.

Whilst some local businesses struggle,

this launderette reaps the benefit.

The water shortage means residents can't use their own washing machines.

As they have their own large water tank, they can carry on trading.

We've had a lot of phone calls this morning saying are we open, have we got water?

It's not until you haven't got something that you really miss it.

And I think most people with a family have their washing

machines on maybe once or twice a day.

And we do a lot of service washes for people.

It has actually been a positive thing out of a negative thing,

which is quite unusual, so that's a plus.

But unfortunately, there's a lot of other people who will be suffering.

We've got a bit of a trickle here.

Yes, I think we'd struggle to shampoo with that little trickle.

Yeah, I mean we've got a trickle at the minute so they are planning

on turning that on in an hour, and that was probably about an hour ago.

OK, then. Right, bye.

-Is she going to come in?

-She said if there's a trickle, she's not having it done.

OK. Oh, dear. Well, what can we do?

Well, a hairdressing salon just couldn't function without water.

Like a pub with no beer.

12m of old, brittle PVC pipe needs replacing with

the more durable polyethylene, but it's going to take some time.

Four to five hours, top of me head.

But depending, with the weather as it's been, it's been a bit slow,

but it seems to have cleared up a bit so me and the lads can crack on.

The main thrust of it, we've got to get the water back on now.

John Butcher is the company's regional water supplies manager.

Hah! Pipes!

For the last 14 years, he's been planning the most

ambitious project of his career -

the inspection of the Haweswater Aqueduct,

a vast pipeline which runs 120

kilometres from the Haweswater Reservoir to Manchester.

60 years, this has given absolute sterling service to us

but the time has come now, we need a bit of an MOT on it.

We've had one or two plays at it over the years

but we now need to be brave enough to stop the flow

and empty the whole aqueduct, so we can get inside and have a look.

It is amazing when you think it gets all the way down to Manchester

from the Lake District and it's all done by gravity, so it's dead

environmentally friendly - there's no pumping, no carbon footprints.

I mean, this one here now, is carrying 100 megalitres a day.

That's 100,000 tonnes of water.

And yet, you can't hear a thing,

cos it's all moving in a nice, controlled way.

Er, but after 60 years,

let's get inside and have a look, see what sort of condition it's in.

Two million people rely on the aqueduct.

During the inspection, the pipe will be shut down

and a series of smaller reservoirs will take over.

This means the water supply will be limited to two weeks.

If the inspection runs over schedule,

Manchester could run out of water.

Minute I give them the keys to say, "There you go, guys",

the clock's ticking.

And two weeks later, I've got to have that aqueduct back,

else we're going to be starting to get ourselves in some problems

with the alternative supplies, you know.

The Haweswater's our biggest reservoir by far, so if we're not

getting the water from Haweswater, it's coming from a much smaller one.

Now we'll be leaning very heavily on these much smaller

reservoirs and the last thing we want them to do is run out of water.

So, two weeks is all they've got.

We're at the training facility. This is our sort of NASA training

camp for our what we call aquanauts,

that are going to be going inside the er, the aqueduct itself.

It means the lads can get an exposure to exactly

all the sort of safe systems we'll be employing,

and actually taste the environment, if you like, that they'll be in.

We're going to do a collapse drill, or potential collapse drill.

Working closely with John Butcher is construction manager John Dawson.

-We're training 120 people for going in the tunnel.

-Yeah.

And we're training in total - so they'll be another 280 people

we're training for above-ground duties.

To recreate the conditions, they've built a mock tunnel.

As you can see, it's a fair diameter - 2.6m in diameter.

I'm six foot four, and I can't touch the top edges.

You lose all sense, especially when it's dark,

you'll lose all sense of what's vertical, what's horizontal.

We may well have up to a foot of water in the bottom.

It could be quite a spooky place to be.

I have a recurring nightmare that I'm in that tunnel,

and I suddenly hear running water behind me.

And that is my big fear.

My whole job, my whole work ethos, is to make sure that everybody

comes home safe and that I've done absolutely everything possible

to make sure that everybody goes in comes back out.

Well, the fellas that made this nearly 60 years ago -

hats off to them.

I mean, you look at the archive footage of them

building it, you know - there's no hard hats, there's no safety.

They've all got flat caps and they're all smoking

cigarettes in a potentially explosive atmosphere.

And as for the engineering feat, to get a 1/3,000 gradient

between Kendal and Bury, without lasers,

without GPS and satellites, is a real feat of engineering.

Take your hats of to these people

and they did it in all sorts of weather, limited materials,

limited equipment - absolutely amazing.

We feel like explorers, like we're going to a new land -

into the unknown.

Just punched me in the head!

The mock tunnel is 130m long.

This team will be inspecting 60km of the real tunnel.

Slow down.

They will use this airport buggy to transport them.

We sort of trawled the world as to the best vehicle you want,

and we started off with those little mobility scooters.

You know, you think, "Right, well, surely they'll go",

but they don't have the distance. Then you look at milk float technology -

it's not quite as robust as we need.

These things are going to be in quite a hostile environment.

-Clear?

-Clear.

They've actually come all the way from Canada.

They're used in airports for baggage handling.

They've proved absolutely fantastic.

We know they're robust, they're reliable,

and they really are just what we need for the job.

No, no, you need to start... right, start your turn now,

-start your turn, start your turn, keep...

-Ooh, whey!

-Foot down.

Fucking wrong!

It's going to take a lot of practice.

Practice? 12 men's lives in their hands.

You only going to be driving it.

Just take it as you go past.

I think you've got to do it pretty sharpish.

I class myself as a good driver.

I've got me HGV Class 1, believe it or not,

and er, no, it's very difficult.

Run for your lives, boys!

And what's great with places like this,

things are occurring that we'd never even thought of.

So it's throwing up the problems

we can address in a nice safe environment as opposed to

when we're under pressure, we've got two weeks, and that's it, you know.

So it's proving to be a fantastic training facility.

-We've learnt something new, haven't we, today?

-Yeah.

If there's any sharp corners, we're buggered, aren't we?

In Kerridge, the burst water main has still not been fixed.

Can't do anything, you can't go and do the gardening,

can't go to the loo.

That's pretty bad.

If it went on for any length of time,

that'd be the biggest thing I'd worry about, so...

The company have sent in the water-on-wheels team to supply water

while the main is repaired.

And we're like the alternative supplies.

And when they have a burst, they call us out with the tanker

to come and pump into the main and we act like a movable reservoir.

We just pump up water in wherever they need it to keep people's

homes on water so they don't... there's no disruption to supply.

Er, it's good, it's quick, you get there,

you've got 30,000 litres you can put straight into the system,

er, keep it going while you carry on doing your repairs.

Cos in the day, all you did was turn them off, and left them

to it, but now you know, we've got to be a bit better than that now.

Hi, Lindsay Howard.

It does look like it's back on full power now.

It's caused us so much worry, though, this last two hours.

We had no water but it's come back on now.

After six hours, the village is finally reconnected to the mains.

Have you been given instructions to make it good?

I'm getting them now, aren't I!

Or is it Alfie I've got to speak to?

The man just sort of said, "Well, we're just replacing the bits that go as they go,"

but this has happened now.

There'll be another one in about six weeks, I'm sure.

It's stronger pipe. It's newer.

It's been out since the '80s-'90s, we used that, and still use it today,

but fortunately, when we're piecing through now,

we're back to iron - back to metal, so we're back to there again.

It needs new pipe putting in, needs a bit of investment, this pipe.

Coming from the reservoir down to this point here.

It'll be loaded, all this - which is

unnecessary - it will be loaded onto the bills, you know.

The money's got to come from somewhere and I just thought

if they were slightly more efficient...

I don't think anyone really cares.

There's no-one who's actually got their finger on the pulse.

It's all money, you know. It's like what they can do

and what they can get.

Poo is what we do!

Waste-water team Andy and Terry are heading back into Blackpool.

Give us one of your favourite songs, Terry.

-What do you mean?

-I like it when you sing.

-# Driving along in my automobile...#

-That's the one.

Neighbours have complained about a possible blocked sewer.

Just grab me skin, mate.

-Hi.

-All right, how's it going?

-I'm fine.

-Yeah.

-Hi, you all right?

-You phoned in a blockage.

-Is it just round the side here, is it?

-It's round the back, there's a manhole.

-Is it?

-Right, just in the back garden.

-Yeah.

-And that's filling up. It's blocked.

Is it all right if we go round and look?

Yeah. My boyfriend said it's going underneath to next door as well so we've got garage keys.

-It moves next door that way, does it?

-Yeah.

-All right, then.

-We've got some keys.

-No problem.

-All right.

-Give us those keys.

-OK. The manhole was blocked. The builders lifted the lid up

and saw it and it started to smell and it was full with water.

Bit pongy. Wasn't every nice!

Some of the sewers here are 120 years old

and prone to collapses, as well as debris collecting.

Just stir the soup up.

This weather and this smell makes your job worthwhile.

We'll go next door, we'll check that. We'll check next door.

Got the keys from next door.

Do it with your knees, not your back.

Oh, there you go.

Four inch plunger - smell the aroma.

Yes, she's a pungent little one today.

Oh, I think she's just here, though.

In the trap? You in?

Oh, there she goes!

Oh, yeah!

Pump me!

-Hello.

-Lower, lower. keep going, keep going, baby!

That's a big cistern, that.

The sound of glory. It's on a trap, mate.

Smells like victory.

Splish!

This is where it gets a bit worse now,

cos it's had a chance to clear and stuff.

That way, mate.

That's a reet one, that one.

Ah, it's strong that one, actually. It's making my eyes water.

You know what? When we first cleared that, didn't smell so bad.

Stinks now. Stick one in through the new.

Yeah, there's the main, so it's flowing fine, so...

Job's a good 'un.

This time, there is no sign of collapse.

-We're all done now.

-Brilliant, thank you.

Just, I think it was just a soft blockage

in the manhole next door so,

we got the manhole off and got it all returned to flow now so...

-That's great.

-That should be it.

We've camera-ed it as well, we've found no issues with the line,

so hopefully it's just a one time thing I think.

-And yeah, that's us done now.

-That's great.

-And on to the next one. All right, thank you very much.

-Thank you very much.

-Cheers now.

-Bye-bye.

-Thank you.

That was a pongy job, that.

On their way to their next call out,

they check on the collapsed sewer from an earlier job.

Aw, definitely.

That's gorgeous that, mate.

There was a defect here in the line when we came last time.

It's obviously been dug and, er, the issue's been resolved.

Job's a good 'un. You happy, mate, with that?

Yeah, over the moon.

THEY LAUGH

-Good 'un, sorted.

-Excellent.

Sorted, we'll put it int' notes.

Before the Haweswater Aqueduct can be inspected, John Butcher

needs to get the final part of the budget signed off.

This is it, this is D-Day.

The problem is that we're running out of time.

We're committed to this window of October.

So it's absolutely crucial that we come out of there with

a smile on our face, that we've been given the sanction.

So, that's how important it is to us.

Well it's the amount of work we've done upfront.

If we were just arriving unprepared,

we'd be deserved to be kicked all round the park and I'd deserve

to be feeling a bit nervous, but we can't do any more than we've done.

So it's as good as that, it's up to

the directors and senior managers of the business to

show their confidence in us.

Exciting times.

Given that everybody's disappeared, I think that's a sign that we've got to go.

I think we need to be in.

-That's right. I should have put a tie on!

-Good luck.

OK, thanks, guys.

Digger ready in a bit.

Woodgate Hill Water Treatment works in Bury.

John Dawson and the team start work on reinforcing the aqueduct

with concrete.

This will be one of 22 entry points for the buggies along

the 60-kilometre stretch of the aqueduct they're going to inspect.

We've excavated down on to the crown of the aqueduct.

It's a pipe, and what you can see here

is the top of that pipe, effectively.

What the lads are stood on now is the bit that we're going to

cut out, so we can get our vehicle in.

The main thing today is to get that concrete placed over those

steel cages, and that's one job ticked off the list

of hundreds that we've got to get done.

Gas leak.

ALARM BEEPS

Down to the bottom, guys. Down to the bottom, go.

Get yourselves off site.

We'll go down, we'll go down to the first one. I've got a phone for help so...

There's been a leak, which is why everyone's been evacuated,

and I'm waiting for assistance to go in and check before we let people in to make sure everything's OK.

The leak has come from the chlorine store.

Chlorine gas is exactly the same as mustard gas.

It's what they used in the First World War in the trenches.

And it gets into your lungs and it dissolves your lungs.

Reacts with water, so you have moisture in your mouth,

and your lungs, and your throat, and it turns it into acid.

And that acid, well, acid's never good

if it's in your lungs, your throat, or your mouth.

But it is fatal, it's absolutely fatal.

The problem is they're one skip load short of pouring this ring beam.

Cos Sharon's on her own she can't deal with it,

she's been told she's got to wait three quarters of an hour for somebody to come and help her.

Before they cut into the aqueduct,

they need a strong, load-bearing wall.

The concrete needs to be compacted to get rid of any

air pockets before it sets.

If this doesn't happen, it could be too weak for the job.

If that concrete goes off, I'll be honest with you,

we're absolutely screwed.

All that concrete, which is a critical path item,

would have to be jiggered out, and we'd have to start again.

Haven't even got me bloody sandwiches with me.

At HQ, it's alarm bells for John Butcher as well.

ALARM BELL RINGS

Well, you couldn't make it up, could you?

Probably the most important day in our life...

..before we get the signature on the cheque,

so it's the way it goes, isn't it?

So, they've got a bit more time to think about it now which is

our problem, we got a bit of momentum going there in our direction we thought,

so we'll have to get back in and start all over again.

Here we go, wish me luck.

Right, you stay here please.

It takes 45 minutes before assistance arrives.

MOBILE PHONE RINGS

Hello.

Wonderful.

The concrete is beginning to set.

They'll go absolute hell-for-leather with it.

So we've just got to keep our fingers crossed now that this

concrete is right and that the disaster has been averted.

But I must admit earlier I BLEEP a brick.

What a day it's been.

I think we saved it,

but the proof will be in seven days

when we test the concrete.

Er, from what the lads have told me I think we just about did it,

but, by God, by the skin of our teeth.

I, er, I don't want any more of them before we go in.

John Butcher is finally out of the boardroom.

We've got the funding we need.

So, it wasn't automatic, you know, er,

fire alarm going off right in the middle of

Paul's presentation, um,

probably didn't help.

Well, it must have helped because we got the money at the end of the day.

Gives us a bit of a breather and time to rethink,

get the story much clearer as well so it was good.

At the end of the day it's a big hurdle

out of the way for us, so it's all getting a bit scary now because

we're actually running out of excuses why we can't do this outage.

So, er, what's the one that's left? Oh, yes, it's the weather.

Each year, the company spends over £70 million

replacing old water mains.

-The water pressure's very low.

-There isn't any water coming through.

OK, let me check to see if there's anything available tomorrow.

That's what happens when you're open 365 days,

24 hours a day, seven days a week.

How many days in a year?

365.

Didn't know that.

You didn't know there was 365 days in a year?

Vick, I still struggle with a 24-hour clock.

-That's worrying.

-I do it on me fingers.

-How old are you, 28?

-Yeah, I'm 28.

What are you going to do when you have kids, how are you going to teach them?

The dad can do that.

THEY LAUGH

What I would advise is to maybe store some water in your kettle.

The water is very discoloured.

Oh, I am sorry.

Just so you can at least, make yourself a brew.

In Ashford Road, Preston, residents wake up to no water.

It were like a river,

just coming out of the pavement,

like a waterfall really.

Paul Wilding and his team get to work.

Basically, I've isolated two valves, another line valve,

to basically restore water supply to the other properties that were affected up there.

So basically, we've got about 28 properties without water now.

Everybody's, from right down there to the end of the road,

everybody has no water.

Go to the bathroom, and then all of a sudden your mum shouts "There's no water!"

And then it just kind of delays your morning a little bit.

Earlier it was just like this river flowing down the drive,

and obviously it's gone under the driveway, into the house, through

the brickwork and there were about nine inch of water in the basement.

It's soaking away now, it's going, but it's made a mess.

There was a lot of stuff down there,

and a lot of it's got wet, it'll have to be chucked away.

-It's all dry now.

-Yes, look at it, it's all soaked away,

don't know where it's soaked away to.

-Have you got any little drains down here or anything?

-No.

No little drain, all right, corners are out.

Yeah, I'm more concerned about under the drive,

the fact that it's actually got up to house wall, you know.

-Right.

-To that extent that it's pushed it through.

Right. Like I say they'll assess all that and go through it with you.

Yeah.

Not a problem.

He's got some flooding water that's gone into the basement, can see it trickling in.

He's got a few items down there so I've took some pictures

and the insurance will come out to assess it and see what's what.

Do you use your hosepipe much for the garden or do you use a watering can?

You use a lot of water with a hose.

No, I use a watering can,

-as I say I've got two water butts at front of the greenhouse.

-Right.

So I tend to just top them up and then just fill up out of that.

It's the tomatoes mainly, but I have enough to last.

Yeah, that's not a problem.

Looks like the main's deteriorated slightly there

and it's blown a hole inside the main, like a weakness point.

So it's blown that little hole inside, that's what's caused the burst.

They seal the hole

and use a device called a split collar to reinforce it.

-Is your water back on now, mate?

-Not tried it.

Yeah, should be back on now.

I'll have a look.

Get these plants watered if you want.

HE LAUGHS

Lovely. Yeah, all sorted.

-No worries, thank you very much.

-Lovely, cheers for that.

Everyone's back on. Customers are happy.

Job's a good 'un.

Happy days for the captain.

HE LAUGHS

What we'll do is, we'll go over the filter block

and enjoy the view on the way.

I remember my way round now.

Now, if this pass doesn't work, it's a sign...

that we can't proceed.

OK, we're in. Can't use that as an excuse.

With the funds in place,

John Butcher has the green light to turn off Manchester's water supply.

The aqueduct's never been shut down, so we are in unchartered

territory, not just from anybody's operational experience here,

but from the history of the whole aqueduct itself.

So this, you know, final cessation of flows is, er,

quite significant.

Certainly it's a big highlight of my 25-year career here.

To think, I never thought when I started I'd be actually

pushing that button that stops the whole flow to the aqueduct.

-Valve.

-Yeah.

-Energised, yeah?

-OK.

This is one small step for man.

Geoff, can I go?

Right, John.

Are you sure?

-It's yours, John.

-OK.

This is just the start of an unknown journey for us

really, as we go forward now.

What we're just doing is a little bit of open heart surgery

on one of our major arteries if you like.

We've got two weeks now to find out what condition that aqueduct is in.

From this point, Manchester is now being supplied from other,

smaller reservoirs, with only enough reserves to last two weeks.

But the inspection can't start until the tunnel is clear of water

and this takes three days.

The first team to go in are on foot.

Just get it done.

Get in there, get it done and get out.

Do you have any traditions?

Erm, yeah, have a big shit before you go in.

HE LAUGHS

Keeping the aqueduct free from contamination is crucial.

Yeah, we drink off this, yeah we're Manchester based,

so yeah, it's our water.

It's in our best interests to make sure it's right.

Nobody's allowed to go past here in any dirty clothes,

they all get changed in the clean room here.

They get changed, and come through chlorous baths

and everything, so everything's kept spotlessly clean at all times.

We put the thermal socks on, thermal suit,

because down there, there's going to be two metres per second

air flow so it's going to be basically like a wind tunnel.

Coming down.

It's been 60 years since anyone set foot in this tunnel.

Scabby, innit? Look at the sides. Look at that.

OK, when you're ready, bend over.

THEY LAUGH

The team look for signs of wear and tear,

and samples from the tunnel wall are taken to see how it's holding up.

Wear in the surface is precedent, and have gone a bit wrong,

but inside the concrete looks well, looks really good, yeah.

It's been made to last down here. It's not in bad condition.

This team will check 12 kilometres of the 120 kilometre long aqueduct.

Considering when it was done, and they've done it,

they've pretty much done it all by hand,

it's in very good condition, considering.

As far as I understand it,

4,000 Irish fellas took their jackets off,

rolled their sleeves up, and came up with shovels and picks.

All these Irishmen, climbing over and climbing into the hole

and digging.

We couldn't do today what they did back then. Brave men.

Brave, clever men.

Waste water team Adrian and Wes are heading to Rochdale.

Me mum not answering, Dad?

HE LAUGHS

You wish I were your dad.

-You're old enough to be me dad, aren't you, Ade?

-I am, mate, I am.

Well, there's one thing for sure.

You'd be better-looking if you were my son.

An overflowing drain has been reported next to a main road.

What's happened here then?

Yes, we've got the waste water flooding on the highway.

Due to the location of it, we knew it would be somewhere higher up.

It's just absolutely full of baby wipes.

Basically, Ade has had a go with the plunger in the manhole.

It won't go with the plunger, so, er, we're just going to jet it now.

Jet from this manhole downstream,

and hopefully we'll clear the blockage. Here y'are, Ade.

Not coming out more down there, is it?

It's on a thing called a P-trap, it's a Victorian idea,

it's meant to stop rats coming back up from the sewer.

Um...but when they built P-traps

they didn't have such things as baby wipes

and fat going down the sink and stuff like that, so....

That's the modern world we live in.

It's too tight an angle to camera the sewer from the surface.

Basically, we can't get the camera in the line.

Just the angle it is, really,

so we're going to have to do a man entry.

So obviously we can't just jump in willy nilly,

we've got to do it safety-wise, so we need the tripod, the winch,

the harness, gas detector,

all that sort of stuff, just for our own safety, really.

Wes has got the pleasure of going inside the manhole

so we can get the camera into the outlook.

Cos it's offset to the chamber, so you can't swing it in

without actually being inside the manhole itself.

And to be fair, Wes has been giving me quite a bit of cheek today

so it's only befitting that he ends up in there.

Yeah, well, basically this harness might take me a while to sort out,

cos Ade had it on last, and he's quite a big chap.

So I might need to adjust the size a while.

Just bear with me.

He's only talking about the crotch area, the rest of it'll be fine.

HE CHUCKLES

Have you got a crow bar?

-Why, is it blocked?

-There's a bit still in it in this outlet here.

The bottom bit's clear in the trap, it's just the...

just the top bit, there's quite a lot of rags and grease in it.

-D'you want to throw the camera down now, Ade?

-Yeah, you ready?

I'm not, er... I'm not laughing at you here, Wes, I promise.

Why don't I believe you?

-You ready?

-Yeah.

Push on...

A P-trap is like a sharp U-bend.

Keep flush, if you can. I think you're at main there.

I think there's just a bit of a soft blockage on the edge.

-Is there?

-See if you can push through.

Yeah, it's gone through that.

Yeah, you're on dropping there now, mate.

Another fine job by Wes and Adey.

Do you want to stay in there for a bit,

or d'you want me to get you out?

No, I think I want to come out now, mate. That'll do.

Oh, yeah, it stinks, like, obviously. It's not the nicest smell, no.

But you just get used to it. Just do it, like. Yeah.

# Wes Odell

# It's not the sewer It's you that smells! #

Did you like that?

I just made that up.

I like that, mate.

The buggy team only have two weeks

to inspect their section of the tunnel.

You're all right that side, yeah?

Eight men make up the buggy teams,

including engineers, repairmen, and two drivers.

All aboard!

They'll be underground for a ten-hour shift,

so they take everything with them, including a mobile loo.

Heads up.

Here we go.

We nearly there yet?

The tunnel should be dry,

but pressure from the water table outside

has broken through the concrete structure.

Yeah, that, it's a wave, yeah.

It's a list of defects, you've got cracks, an inactive crack,

which means it's not leaking,

an active crack where there's water coming in.

Think we've got another spurter here in the wall.

A surface team are on stand-by if anything goes wrong.

I'm here, top man me, I make sure the lads get in and out safely.

Every ten minutes they give me a gas reading, I write it down.

Things like that.

'That dodgy bit, you know where it starts going?'

Mark stays in touch with an old-school communications cable.

If you hear from them, let me know.

Looks like something off the war films, doesn't it?

They unravel it as they go along.

Is everybody OK?

'Yeah, everybody's fine,'

we're still feeling a bit down but we're all right.

OK, mate, thank you very much.

To stay on schedule,

the buggy team needs to inspect 15 kilometres a day.

Fucking hell!

So this is an escape shaft,

and it's only in case of a tunnel collapse.

That's 30 metres up there.

And we've got two men up there as well

that are in contact on the comms.

They're waiting up there in case there's a problem and we bring

a machine in, we'll lift the lid off and then we start the rescue.

But hopefully, you won't need that.

But as you can see, we're a long way underground!

THEY LAUGH

-Lunch break.

-It's wet, and it's warm.

And a chance to use the on-board facilities.

This is the worst bit of the job, them having a pee.

-I believe you need two screwdrivers.

-THEY LAUGH

That... And that's what you've got.

It's a good job I'm slim!

I'll see you in a minute.

We've ran out of comms cable. The reel's run out.

Halfway through the shift, the team runs out of communication cable.

They still have another nine kilometres to inspect.

Somebody might have needed it on another site, so took it but...

They reckon it's been nicked, we can't... There's no more up there.

Not right happy about going up there without comms, are you?

-We break down, we...

-I wouldn't.

In fact, I'm pulling rank and saying no, we're not going.

We're right not happy without no comms.

We're not going without comms. Let's not be silly, lads.

The inspection is called off.

That'll have to be it for the day, I'm afraid.

Which is a crying shame!

In Manchester, a customer has a major water shortage.

Service delivery manager John Butler has been sent to help.

Slightly different...

Filling swimming pools is not something we do on a regular basis.

Victoria Baths was closed in 1993

after almost a century of public service.

Ten years ago, campaigners saved the building.

Today, the pool is being filled to mark the anniversary.

It doesn't look very technical, but it is a very technical job.

We've got to work out the size of the pool,

how much water we think it'll take to fill it, what flow rate we need

to put in so we don't cause problems on the network.

And then we just drop the hose in and hope for the best.

Chris and Pete have played a large part in the restoration.

I've never seen it being filled.

So after a lot of hard work cleaning it I'm really looking forward to it.

Right, there you go. OK, it's hooked up.

We've got about five or six days to, to fill it,

so we could probably fill it in about two days,

but there's always a risk of causing discoloured water,

there's always a risk of flattening the network,

so we'll just do it at a steady rate.

So which reservoir has this come from, John?

-It's come off the Manchester ring main.

-Has it? Right.

So it's like blended water.

-A lot of it comes from the Lake District.

-Yeah, yeah.

Mixed with the local sources.

-So it's the best water in the world.

-It is, yeah.

-Yeah.

-What time's the first swim?

-When it's full, Friday.

I think we were going to do Thursday, weren't we?

-Thursday night possibly, yeah.

-Thursday night possibly, yeah.

-You going in?

-Oh, yeah.

It brings it to life as you can see now, you know.

We've been filling it, what, 20 minutes,

and you know, we've got ripples in the water, the light et cetera.

The sound, you know, which of course,

when the building's empty, it's a very quiet place.

Yeah, it's strange, it's almost...

Yeah, the pool is coming to life it feels like,

after being a tiled place that's not had water in for five years.

It's almost like it's breathing again really, isn't it?

It's coming alive.

If it's overflowing tonight, we've calculated wrong.

After 14 years of planning, the Haweswater Aqueduct inspection is complete,

and it's in pretty good shape after 60 years.

Fresh air's always good when you're out of a confined space.

Always better up on this side than it is down there.

It's a relief that we got in, we did it, and we got out in time.

Mission accomplished, job done. We're all finished.

We did 48 repairs, but they were only minor repairs, really.

It could potentially have been a lot worse.

I think it's a real credit to the people 60 years ago.

You know, if I could go back in time and shake their hands, I really would.

It's over to our operation colleagues now.

They're switching water on now.

And it goes out into supply and it becomes the drinking water of

the people of Manchester once again - as if we'd never been here.

Before the water is safe to drink,

the entire pipeline needs to be flushed through.

This is the end of the Haweswater Aqueduct.

This is sort of the last valve in this building that allows us to

discharge the water from the aqueduct,

this flushing flow that we're now introducing into the aqueduct.

Right, OK.

We'll wait from the call up there, as soon as they're ready, open that,

and then we'll have a look at what the water's like.

Let John know we're ready to roll down here.

Go. Give it the beans.

So it'll slowly build, think it's beginning to start now.

Can hear you've got an airplane type, ramp up sound,

as the valve starts to operate and open. There it goes.

Fantastic, isn't it, hey? Quite an occasion, really, I think.

So as you can hear now it's starting to ramp up,

it's well and truly going now.

And it'll gradually get higher and higher.

Well, that's the Haweswater Aqueduct being turned back on.

Yeah, we've had an empty aqueduct for two and a half weeks now.

We've had 80 people tramming up and down the aqueduct,

working shifts, we've had vehicles going up and down the aqueduct.

I think we're going to be surprised what colour the water comes out in here,

and it'll be pretty obviously that will not be drinking water.

It'll be like Guinness.

It's pointless taking a sample to the labs,

that plainly is not drinking water yet.

A testament to the engineers who built

the aqueduct at the end of the day, because all we've effectively

done is just drain it down and got in and had a look.

Here it is sort of 60, 70 years later, and it still works.

Samples will be taken to the company lab.

When they're given the all clear,

Manchester will be back to its normal water supply.

It takes nearly 400,000 litres to fill the Victoria Baths.

I've worked in the water industry for 30 years,

but I've never done anything like this before.

It just looks completely different.

I know all it is... It's just a pool with water,

but, I don't know, it's really impressive.

You need to jump in, give us a demo.

-I'll dive in if you want.

-Go on.

-Give us five minutes then I'll be in.

-Must be mad.

He's obviously not worked in the water industry long.

There's four levels of coldness.

There's cold, very cold, extremely cold, ... freezing.

And that's ... freezing.

-It's Brad Pitt.

-Brad Pitt. Yeah, right.

Fat Pitt.

Very brave.

So it says the water's about 17 degrees. Feels a lot less.

It's actually brilliant, it really is. It's very exhilarating.

And one of the best things is, you can do this and look up at the roof.

Ooh! And that is only the toes!

Still not going in.

Must be great for you two, being here every day

and the pool's always empty and then to see it like this...?

It's been mesmerising, actually.

The last three days we've had our lunch

on the chairs down there cos it's mesmerising,

the water going in, it filling up, the different lighting, et cetera.

-It's great.

-Yeah, you going to swim in it every day?

Probably. You not going to, have a dabble then or...?

-No.

-Not even a paddle?

-I'm quite happy to watch you two swim.

-All right.

It's the anniversary party, and John is one of the guests of honour.

The people that are here today are a lot of...

We got volunteers that have been involved over the last ten years,

you know, just activities with Victoria Baths.

We got some dignitaries as well.

If anybody asks me what I'm here for, I'm telling them

I'm the depth and volume consultant.

-Just trying to big myself up a bit.

-Yeah, why not, yeah.

It's good, really good.

I know that he was particularly looking forward to

the synchronised swimmers. Yeah, definitely. Yes.

I'd do it again just for the synchronised swimmers, I think.

I think you should go, you know, perhaps do it,

-you know, in your spare time.

-Yeah, I could do.

-Do they have men's synchronised swimmers?

-I don't think so.

-Don't think it has quite the same attraction.

-No.

Just one more. John.

John the waterman from United Utilities.

He put the water in.

He supplied the water, so he can go in the middle.

It was a very small part we played, but we were glad to help.

Keep the smiles going now, that's good.

You may think it was a small part, but to us it was the biggest part.

-Yeah, thank you very much.

-Cheers, girls.

A photo for your mantelpiece, do you think your wife will be happy?

No.

The first few months, you're spewing up all over,

and you've got the shits, but after that you get used to it.

Actually I'm worried about if it pings off down the horizon.

We'll keep hold of it.

It's not very common that we get to dig inside someone's property.

-And you know, we're going to hit some legal problems.

-Yeah.

No problem. We'll do that, don't worry about that.

In the poo.

Roger, in the poo.

Does anyone know what an abattoir is? No?

People of Warrington, you've got water in the morning.