Episode 5 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 in challenging locations...

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

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

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

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

-Yeah.

..and challenging conditions

In the poo.

Does anyone know what an abattoir is?

No?

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 morning, Wes!

Yeah, see you in morning, mate.

Just another day in the office.

THEY LAUGH

Ten million visitors flock to Blackpool

and nearby Lytham St Annes every year.

The area is Britain's biggest seaside resort.

This holiday home sleeps 16 people at £600 a night.

Today, it's the watermen who are visiting.

One, two, three.

It's giving off a nice aroma is that.

Ah, this is a good'un, mate, she's a good'un.

The sewer has collapsed underneath the property, causing a blockage.

In, right at the wall.

-Aw, it's blocked still.

-Yeah...

That's the collapse.

It's not the first time the company have invaded Mr Gregory's property.

It doesn't help because I had this experience with them this time last

year, er, with another collapse that I had in the garden, which basically

was just outside of where the collapse is today, six foot away.

We had to spend, I think it was nearly eight months,

basically using my garden as a building site to store

materials and pipes, machinery was out on the highway.

Called in to manage the job

is wastewater performance technician, James Darlington.

-Thanks for turning up, mate.

-All right, pal, no problem.

-About time you got out of bed anyways.

-I know. Yeah.

THEY LAUGH

-INTERVIEWER:

-James, why are you here today?

Er, basically, we're trying to find a defect on the sewer,

it's within this property.

Erm, so trying to assist the lads, see what we've got.

Er, speak to the customer,

make sure he's happy with everything that we're doing,

cos basically, we're going to have to dig within the property.

The sewer collapse is causing problems for neighbouring

properties, but it's about to become a headache for Mr Gregory.

Yeah, we're just going to move these beds out the way and locate it...

Right.

..and possibly move the carpet out the way

and mark up for a dig on a later date.

-To me.

-To you, lad.

-To me.

-Keep going.

This may well effect the business because we could have a

booking tomorrow, this evening, for the day or two, or next week.

We don't want to have this as an annual event, do we, really?

-No, exactly.

-You know.

I'm running a business at the end of the day, and now,

-this room is redundant.

-Yeah.

I can't take a reservation for this room

because you're coming here tomorrow

and you might be here for a week, you might be here for two weeks.

And I should book this room out to yourselves to be honest...

Yeah, yeah, no...

..till this job is up and done and finished and gone.

-Yeah, we understand that...

-You know?

..cos it's your loss of business, really.

Yeah, yeah, this is a loss. This is a loss, you know,

there's accommodation for four in here.

Yeah. Well, we'll look into it, that's not an issue.

Well, it is an issue because it's all right saying it isn't an issue...

No, I mean, it is issue for you, of course...

Until somebody comes back to me

and says, "Yes, we're agreeing this," it is an issue.

Yeah, you can't rent out, like you say, lost profits and things.

We need to have some agreement in place, that's what I'm saying.

But there must be a department that coordinates

-a claim for compensation.

-Yeah, yeah.

Right, there must be a contact detail,

rather than going through the process of ringing a call centre...

Yeah, that's on the card, the details.

..having to explain all the way through to the same person

who picks that phone up at United Utilities,

then you have to go through the same process of explaining this.

I'll give you the card with that number on.

Got there eventually, didn't we?

All the furniture has to be removed

so a huge hole can be dug in the middle of the room.

We've got 16 people booked in for this weekend,

but I've had to cancel those, unfortunately.

Obviously, tears on the phone, erm, disappointment.

INTERVIEWER: How much money have you lost by cancelling this one for,

you know, this coming weekend?

This weekend, I haven't got the exact paperwork on me,

but about £3,000-4,000, basically.

You know, so that's just for this one booking, and then we've got

the Christmas bookings and the New Year's bookings, so,

potentially, it could be in the tens of thousand pounds.

50 miles away in the suburbs of southeast Manchester,

residents have alerted the company to a strange smell.

The sewer has been blocked with 30,000 litres of concrete.

Going to send this down, get in it, belt harness on, come up,

bring one of the lads down with you.

Foreman Frank Smith and his team have had to construct a mine

just to get to the problem.

The total length of the blockage is going to be

somewhere in the region of 55 linear metres,

so the amount of concrete that's gone in is just unbelievable.

Er, how it's got there is mind-boggling.

They can't dig up the road because gas,

electricity and fibre optics are in the way.

We're now tunnelling from here

and we're going all the way up here,

this is where the lads are working now, under here.

It's roughly seven, seven-and-a-half metres deep.

They're digging a 51-inch square inside tunnel,

and we just keep going, keep going,

keep going...

..and at the moment, the lads are somewhere...here.

And they're seven-and-a-half metres below us.

And we're going to try... Well, we're not going to try,

we're going to get where we think the tunnel...

The blockage, is...

here.

We think the blockage is there.

It's one of the biggest mines of Frank's career,

costing a quarter of a million pounds.

The problem with this job, it's the conditions.

It's the distance in for one, it's a long way.

Just the pure sewage, you know, you don't know what's in it,

it's been there for years.

And then the ventilation, and then the dust,

it's the shittiest job we do.

It's hard to prove how structural concrete got here.

But it could have escaped from a nearby building site.

It's something the company deal with five to ten times a year.

Normally, that type of concrete you'd be breaking it with

a big hydraulic machine, not an hand tool.

And we're restricted to the times we can work with that machine.

You get hand-arm vibration, they call it white finger.

If you get it, you've had it.

They work in pairs, slowly moving forward.

While one man drills the concrete, the other builds the mine.

They're physically very fit lads,

and they've got a mentality where it's not going to beat them.

Oi, take a picture of the state of them.

Look at it, just look! Have you been rolling about in it?!

THEY LAUGH

Look at the state of ye, Jesus!

Obviously, lads, it's getting wetter.

Right, you're on the camera now.

-Listen, it's getting shittier at the bottom.

-Yeah.

Is the concrete going higher?

No, the concrete's getting less now.

The concrete's getting less, and there's more crap at the bottom.

Look at the state of them.

They want medals not wages for working down there!

Elsewhere in East Manchester, more roads are about to be dug up.

This time to give the sewer an environmental upgrade.

-Yeah, you just stand there.

-SHE LAUGHS

Project coordinator Tessa Smith, has to make sure

the locals are prepared for a year of noise, chaos and disruption.

Er, we're doing a public exhibition,

so basically, where we invite the local residents, businesses,

to come and talk to us about the work that we're doing.

Won't matter I'm missing circuits tonight, will it?

SHE LAUGHS

It is going to be noisy, you know,

it's basically a massive construction site.

We're going to be tunnelling under there,

there's going to be cranes, you know, it's going to be disruptive,

and, you know, we just have to be straight with people.

Despite it being one of the driest summers the Northwest has known,

they have to plan for bad weather.

Heavy rain leads to sewage overflowing into local rivers.

This project will install storm tanks to stop this -

by storing the excess liquid until the treatment works are ready.

We've had occasions where they're queuing to get in the door,

and then there's occasions when people genuinely just aren't

that bothered that the work's taking place.

A lot of people might want to go to the beer garden today so,

unfortunately, we may not get anyone coming to talk to us!

So, fingers crossed.

Should I do a dance?

-SHE LAUGHS

-This could be it, you know.

The noisy works will be happening in the middle of residential areas.

An hour in, and two people have finally arrived.

-It's nice to take an interest in the community, so...

-It is.

-No problem, thank you for coming.

-Thank you, that's great.

Thank you. Cheers.

You know, we've got a few hours yet,

so let's hope they start to come.

This is the river that will be cleaner

because of the new storm tanks.

Sometimes, because this doesn't actually have any benefit to them

personally, you know, it's just an inconvenience that we're there.

Eventually, a third person turns up.

In the viaduct here, there is, erm, kestrels nesting.

Right, there was a lot of residents concerned that you're going

-to drive them away.

-Right... They're still there.

Apparently, that doesn't seem to be happening.

Thanks for coming, Tony, nice to meet you.

-No worries, cheers.

-See you later, bye-bye.

I think the record of one that I've done was we only got three.

So we're on a par.

When it is quiet like this, it is a bit disheartening,

and then, you know, if we then still get people ringing in,

you know, it can be frustrating for us cos we're given them

an opportunity to come and talk to us face-to-face.

If you build it, they will come.

So perhaps if we have one on site whilst we're building it,

we will get an influx of people.

Wastewater team Adrian and Wes have been working together

for just over a year.

It's too big, Wes, it won't go in.

Come on Ade, just get it in, mate, stop messing about.

Might need some sort of lube on t'end of it.

-Some WD40 there, shall we try that?

-Ah, I think I've got it in now.

Yeah, just putting plunger on end of me rod.

Yeah, partner in grime, is Wes.

We are the dream team. I'd like to think so,

but I'm sure many would disagree.

# Raindrops keep falling on my head. #

This rain! It's not what we need this, Ade.

HE YAWNS

You'll need your waterproofs tonight, Wes.

The Northwest has been lucky to escape major floods this year,

but even normal rainfall in Preston causes problems.

I'll just er... I'll stay in the van and I'll just shout instructions

out through crack on t'window like that for you.

HE LAUGHS

You do that anyway, don't you, when it rains?

I know that between us both, we can solve most poo pipe mysteries.

Right, come on, then, Weslor,

this one's ours here.

Yeah, it's just here.

You get a lot of highway flooding in weather like this,

where it's either the gullies aren't coping with the amount of rain

that's fallen, or the actual sewers that they connect to aren't coping.

It's usually our remit on those occasions to try

and establish whish is at fault,

whether it's the gulley or the sewer itself.

-Running though, innit?

-Yeah.

Some rainwater-only drains belong to the council,

and are theirs to fix.

I'm just going to pop some dye into that gulley, just to

try and trace where the gullies are actually running to.

On this one, I'm pretty confident it's, er,

it's not going to be a fault for United Utilities.

So what you looking for now?

We're looking for... We're hoping the green dye's going to pass

through this line, because it's this...

Yeah, the green dye's come through now.

So, cos it's not serving properties, it's actually just

owned by the council.

-INTERVIEWER:

-What do you lads think about working

in this sort of weather?

-We love it.

-Love it, yeah.

I'd actually sooner work in this than sweltering heat.

Sweltering heat, you know that all your friends are in a beer garden

somewhere, so it's got its pluses.

It's a nice easy one this for us, innit, in this weather?

We're getting closer to that tea

that Wes is going to buy for me later.

So, how's it going with the new girlfriend, anyway, Wes?

-All right, mate.

-Everything all right?

All right, yeah.

Does she come with a free foot pump and a puncture repair kit?

THEY LAUGH

-Has she moved in yet?

-She's not moved in yet, Ade, no, no.

She'll start off by accidentally leaving her toothbrush

at your flat, and then accidentally leaving a pair of pyjamas.

Worst case scenario, she's in there controlling the TV remote.

No, she'll never get hold of the TV remote.

That's a man thing that, Ade, you must know that.

Never give a woman a TV remote.

You've got a lot to learn, my young Jedi, but I'll teach you.

THEY LAUGH

The way that the shifts work, we sometimes work with other gangers

as well, although I'm not ashamed to admit that Wes is my favourite.

What do you fancy for tea today, Ade?

We'll get a big dirty kebab or something,

and when I go home I'll tell t'wife I've had a prawn salad sandwich.

Need to watch them calories, don't you, Ade?

You naturally burn it off when you've got a body like mine.

Back in Lancashire, James, who's dealing with the holiday home,

has a technique for calming himself.

Er, three, five, six, that's eight.

Eight today, so good haul.

The chickens were an addition to

when we moved to this property a few years back.

The wife was on maternity leave and, erm, when she was watching

telly one day she saw something about rescue hens so we

started off with two, and we progressed to 15 at one stage.

HENS CLUCK

He's on his way back to the collapsed sewer underneath

the private property.

I'd say a bit apprehensive, really, meeting him again.

We've got quite a bit of work to do, and obviously without

damaging his property so, yeah, we need to sort of look at it.

It is a sensitive job to do, er,

but once I meet him, I'm sure everything will be fine from there.

BANGING

Mr Gregory's had to cancel a booking over the weekend

because of the work, and it's cost him money.

I was very surprised,

and I was quite elated, in a sense, that they'd be done by Monday,

but I'm not very optimistic that that's going to happen, really.

Think you'll still be finished on Monday?

Erm, well...

-possibly.

-All being well.

-All being well.

"All being well" now, is it? It's change...

Oh, it was a definite earlier on.

Let me just get one of the general down there.

-So it was where you thought it was, was it?

-Yeah.

-Thank goodness for that, hey?

-I know.

Here we are, we've got to negotiate that this work is going

-to be done correctly.

-Yeah, yeah.

I need my independent surveyor to verify that the work that you're carrying out...

-That that membrane is...

-..is up to standard.

-At the end of the day it is on my property...

-No problem.

..so, you know, it's got to be said that you've got to allow him

-access to physically inspect it.

-View it.

-Yeah.

Yeah, that's fine. We'll do that.

Otherwise, we're going to hit some legal problems

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

New building regulations mean you can no longer build over

a sewer without permission.

-Are you on it now then?

-Yeah, can feel it.

Is that it, yeah?

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

it is a bit of a one-off, a sensitive situation.

A section of pipe is missing,

and plant roots have been holding up the roof of the sewer.

As I've been digging down, the ground underneath me's just

given way, and fell into the collapsed sewer.

This section of pipe is missing.

Where's it gone?!

Yeah, it could have end up washing down stream, yeah.

That is the inlet there. That is the outlet there.

It comes in and goes...

It's just leading out to the side of the conservatory into the manhole.

With no pipe at all in this section,

James' team have to cut a new one in.

A few hours later the new pipe is in,

but the rest of the job will have to wait until after the weekend.

Good job, thanks a lot, lads.

It takes a month for an inch of concrete to dry

so potentially four months of lost revenue,

just for two days work really, so, er, bit of a stressful time.

HE LAUGHS

We can empathise with him,

I wouldn't like someone to dig in my house,

but, at the end of the day we've got to repair our sewer and obviously

get the flows restored again, so it's a job that we have to do.

On Monday, work to restore the room moves swiftly.

All look clean?

Yeah, think it looks fine, I mean, there's no dust on

any of the surfaces, so the temporary structure which

we had inside seems to have done its job.

Good news for Mr Gregory, the concrete's not going to take

four months to dry, but just a few hours.

-REPORTER:

-What you doing, James?

Er, I'm just documenting it, Ben, basically.

We're just going to make sure that everything we've done

previously, we've put it all back as it was before.

It's in our legislation that we've got to do that so,

anything we sort of touch or work on we have to replace it like for like.

A carpet and furniture arrive the next day,

less than a week after they were taken away.

Yeah, just look at that, though.

I'm not sure if that was in that corner.

I think there's quite a lot of furniture to go back in.

It's everything that has come out would obviously, erm...

Where it goes, I can remember most of it but these lads obviously

took it out, so they're the ones who are putting it back in.

I mean, at the moment, obviously, I have a surveyor involved

-in the situation.

-Yeah.

And so I think he still sort of formatting the paperwork to

-put a compensation claim in basically.

-Yeah.

I know we've not received one yet, cos I would've heard about it.

That's right.

I mean, would you say you're happy with what we did for you?

Yeah, I mean, obviously, it was inconvenience at the time...

-Yeah, I understand.

-..and stressful leading up to it.

-It was unknown how long it was going...

-Yeah.

..to take at the time, wasn't it?

In general, on the whole, this side of it, I'm relieved.

I hope I don't have to come back and visit again.

Obviously, we've not done our job correctly if I have to visit again.

So, yeah, I'd like to say, er, I'd quite like to see the back

of this one and probably not attend again.

PHONE RINGING

Thank you for calling,

you're speaking to Rachel, may I take your name, please?

I wanted to be a weather girl when I was in school,

and they were like, "What do you want to do?"

"Work experience, what do you want to do?"

"I want to be a weather girl."

Didn't have that on the list of things to do, though.

Each year, the company deals with over 1,000 claims for compensation.

Hi, Mrs Oherty, it's Vicky again from United Utilities.

Due to the inconvenience it's caused to yourself,

we have agreed to raise some compensation for that.

Are you the bill payer at the property there?

The water regulator requires certain payments to be made to

customers for poor service.

Everything from loss of business to appointments not kept can be

paid out for.

Obviously, I know that

when I said to you that the team are coming out, and then they've

not turned up, to me that's what we call a failed promise action,

especially if you've not been advised

that they're not coming.

It's a case of compensating to say sorry, really,

and put that customer's faith back in us, because we are the only

water board that they can get supply from in this area, so...

All right, thanks very much, thank you.

No problem, and you, too. Take care, then, bye-bye.

My first Happy Christmas.

Happy Christmas on the 21st of November!

I think you should go and buy me an advent calendar.

I wonder if they do vegan advent calendars. Maybe it's just grapes.

-Open the window and you get a grape!

-Yeah!

-Or you get a seed or a nut!

-That'd be ace!

KETTLE BOILS

I don't function till I've had my coffee.

Three months ago, Tessa held a meeting in east Manchester to

warn residents about noise and disruption coming their way.

MACHINERY WHIRS

Then, only three people turned up, but now, everyone wants their say.

The builders have turned up, they've blocked all the street off,

you can't get in or out.

The whole house is shaking.

It's just the vibrations, ridiculous,

and like, the aerial's fallen out the wall.

Me television's shaking.

You've got customers who are disrupted all the time, they can

sometimes want to phone you, you know, at a weekend or on an evening.

For my business, obviously a drop in turnover again.

If it goes down any further then we're struggling.

They said it's just like a bin wagon going past the house, the noise.

But like I says to him, I say, "But they don't pass me

"house for eight or nine hours a day, you know, backwards and forwards.

"This is constant".

I said, "is there any chance you can be quiet for five minutes

"when, you know, the vibrating's going on?" "No."

MACHINERY DRILLING

I even went up to the man that had the... Yeah,

that had the microphone, measuring the vibrations.

Not done nothing.

I said, "Five minutes, I've got a migraine," and they wouldn't.

MACHINERY STOPS

That's United Utilities for you.

Tessa and her team have been liaising with residents

since the project began.

Today, she wants to check in with some of the most vocal.

-Hello.

-Hiya.

I'm Tess.

I'm the project coordinator from the site that's just round the corner.

And it's just a bit of a courtesy call from my point of view,

really, to see if there's anything else we can do.

I've asked them to be quiet several times, but they didn't.

-So now you're here.

-TESS LAUGHS

I am actually telling the truth.

Right, it is difficult when it's the site lads and they're,

you know, sticking to a programme,

-but I have raised a cheque for you for £100.

-That's fine...

Just to cover... I know you've had to get taxis, and...

The money's not the issue, it's...

-It's the... Yeah.

-It's the racket.

-Yeah, unfortunately, well, you know.

-I know they've got a job to do.

-Yeah.

-And me stepdad used to be a builder

-and he worked on the Channel Tunnel.

-Oh, right well, you'll...

-So, yeah.

-He knows about it.

It's nice you get that one-to-one contact

because at least something's been done about the situation.

It's a difficult situation to be in because, obviously,

from a construction point of view, we need to get the job done,

but you want to try and make sure all the customers are happy,

and you don't want to disturb them.

Er, we're going to bob in and see one of the businesses.

Erm, as you can see, just across the road, on the side

that we've got closed, erm, there used to be parking bays.

You know, for a local business, that can really effect them

cos, you know, people would drive past

and just bob in - "Oh, we'll just park here and nip in."

For them, they're losing business.

Hello.

My name's Tess.

I'm the project coordinator on this nice job that's happening.

Yeah, wonderful job, isn't it?!

Erm, yeah, so just calling in to... Obviously, now we're up

and running, erm, how it's effecting you, how you're getting on,

if there's anything I can do to help out?

-Turnover's going down, profits are going down...

-Right.

I mean, the shutters are up, yeah, but no-one actually knows

the shop is open because they can't quite see.

I mean, we do have signs up, usually, saying, you know,

-business is open as usual, so we can get some more of those...

-Yeah.

..to try and say to people, you know,

businesses are here, we are open.

That's not a problem, I can have those out in a few days for you...

-Yeah.

-..to try and, you know...

Well, you see, it's the passing trade.

To get that back, I'll have...

You'll have to do a lot of work on it to get them back.

Yeah, unfortunately,

I suppose, until we open that parking bay up, there's nothing

we can do cos they can't... There's nowhere for them to park.

Are you aware we have a loss of profits scheme

that United Utilities will pay out on?

Yeah, but I read through that letter that they sent

-when they started this job...

-Yeah.

..but you're looking at waiting for that, you're not going to get it straightaway, are you?

We can make interim payments,

we won't make you wait till the end of the scheme.

If you can write down your details for me, we'll take it from there.

That is a great relief.

I mean, I was proper... I mean, proper struggling.

I am happy, but I'll be even happier when this...

HE LAUGHS

..this road gets cleared.

-OK, thank you very much.

-Thanks very much for your time, see you later.

You know, you've got to have empathy to do this job.

There'd be no point doing it

if I couldn't see it from both sides of the coin, you know.

I couldn't be a miserable, you know, "not really bothered

"what you think", and then come out and deal with customers,

cos you've got to be the right type of person to deal with them.

And I just think that, you know, I'm being genuine with them,

I'm not filling them full of rubbish,

and I'm honest, because, I'm like, well,

"We can't tell them to stop work."

DRILLING

After three months,

Frank has finally removed all the concrete from the sewer.

Now, he's started rebuilding it.

The job today is putting the last couple of pipes in.

That involves pushing your pipes home,

they'll make a wall with bags filled with concrete,

and that'll be the tunnel finished then.

Obviously, there's a lot of work to do yet,

but, as we call it, the back's broke, you know.

Hold the bucket there now.

It's a dying art, specialist tunnellers.

The lads who are doing it now, there ain't no young lads doing it again.

Well, that's not too bad, is it?

No, that's spot on.

You won't get any better than that.

We just don't get no young lads coming like through, you know.

As soon as you mention sewers, everybody goes "eurgh!",

you know.

But you get used to working with them, you know.

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

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

We're there now, she's home and dry.

And it's teatime now, John.

It's teatime.

It's time now to listen to Frank checking orders!

Anyway...

Come on, lads, the butties are going cold!

Frank must be treating us this morning!

Yeah!

Tell us about her, then?

-Who?

-THEY LAUGH

Which one you on about now?

-Laura.

-No.

Oh, no!

Laura!

The love of your life that you won't admit to!

Yep, yep. Right..

Frank's son Rory also works on the project as a carpenter.

He tries to keep the morale, within the lads,

good and, you know, everyone has a laugh,

and if you didn't laugh, you'd cry, wouldn't you?

So, yeah, he keeps everyone laughing and joking and we all do.

Years and years ago,

my father had a timber company supplying the wood,'

so I've always been involved, from being ten year old,

running about...just sewer sites.

The industry was different years ago. You could...

The miners would let you down the tunnel and have a look,

where now you couldn't dream of it.

That is a lot of stuff!

-Jonny?

-Yeah?

-Will that one be enough?

-Oh, yeah.

-Right.

That's the last one, thanks be to God.

I'm Manchester born and bred, I now live in Northern Ireland.

Met a young lady few years ago, got married, er,

and I fly home every Friday.

So I'm about to go there in a bit

and I come back Monday morning, and that's my life. But I love it.

Job done.

I might get a kiss first thing in the morning off Lucy now.

-Oh, you never know!

-Hey?

It's 7.15am in Warrington

and clean water engineer Lee McVeigh is about to start a split shift -

half in the morning, and half at night.

I'll be in about half three, four. I'm on nights tonight, aren't I?

Back out again tonight.

-The bed to meself!

-Joshua's in bed with you tonight!

-INTERVIEWER:

-How is he on nights?

Does he, er, is he in a better mood or worse mood when he does nights?

He's horrendous. He's absolutely horrendous.

He's a moaner, and he's grumpy.

THEY LAUGH

-That's nice, innit?

-He'd say he wasn't, but he is.

Have a nice day. Love you.

I'll collect you from Nan's later, OK?

-See you later. Ta-ra.

-See you later.

As you can see, I cleaned me van yesterday

cos I knew yous was coming!

In the winter,

I know people might say it's cold and things,

but it's good because we have a lot of bursts and things, and it's...

Your day can change and that's the best thing about this job.

Know what I mean? The day can change from one job to the next.

MUSIC: "When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" by Billy Ocean

I've been on the water since I was 18.

And to be honest, this is...

this is most probably one of the best jobs that you can do, because

as you can see now, you don't know what your next job is.

You know what I mean?

I don't think I could sit in an office all day.

All they ever do is sit there looking at the clock all day,

and I couldn't do that. I like to be busy, you know what I mean,

and get out and do things.

I'm not saying they're lazy in the office if they're watching,

but I'd rather be active and get things move... get things done,

otherwise I end up getting bored

and causing mischief in the office and messing around.

Lee's first job of the day is at this nursery,

where their water bill has mysteriously shot up.

-All right, Dave.

-All right.

-Lee.

-Come about the meter?

-Yeah.

So has it just shot up, Dave, or has it been...?

It's doubled since our last quarterly bill.

And you've had no leaks or nothing inside or...

-Searched everywhere, can't find anything.

-Yeah?

-I'm just thinking, is it on your side of the, erm...

-Yeah, yeah.

-You've had no work on it, have you, like...

-Nothing.

..plumbing or nothing like that, no?

It's flying round.

-Yeah, if you can just isolate that.

-Yeah, the water isolation, yeah.

That black dial's flying round and the red dial's flying round,

obviously we know now there's nothing...

There's no leak from here to there, so it's got to be somewhere inside.

As the leak is inside the school, they have to fix it,

but Lee is helping identify where the problem lies.

See, nothing's wrong, is it, know what I mean?

No.

Let's see if we...

With them not running, you'd see it, wouldn't you, if there's water here.

-The best thing to check is your toilets, if that's all right.

-Yeah.

If we can check your men's toilets,

it's men's toilets, really, for your urinals.

What'll happen is,

-it'll just fill, flush, fill, flush, you know what I mean?

-Yeah.

WATER TRICKLES

-Yeah, see, you can hear that.

-Yeah, you can hear the...

-If you take that out, can this one come off?

-Yeah, yeah.

I'll just lift this up.

There, see?

If you're unsure or you need us out again, just give us a ring.

I'll give you this. What this is,

it's like, we call it a wow card,

what it is is, if you go on,

-you can say if I've done a good job or not.

-Oh, will do.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Happy customer?

Yeah, yeah, hopefully.

Given him me wow card and hopefully he'll give me a good report,

and I'll get a bit of a thanks off me manager.

Off to the next one now.

That's if me van starts.

At Haweswater Reservoir in the Lake District,

there's an underwater job that requires a specialist diving team.

Wouldn't want you to leak, would we?

They're going to be conducting an industrial type task,

er, which in itself carries a lot of dangers, but also underwater.

The diving contractors work on everything from oil rigs

to nuclear power stations.

'The main risks with diving work, really,

'are decompression-recompression sickness,'

which is when the divers ascend out of the water too quickly,

and they get gas bubbles in their blood.

'We've got a recompression chamber, so if we had any issues like that,

'the diver would be transported immediately into the chamber

'where he'd go through depressurisation and recovery.'

They have to remove a pyramid-shaped screen from a pipe

so they can put a lid on.

This will allow them to fix the pipe's tap

without the risk of any water pressure.

'Erm, from the dive control, we've got a video from the helmet cam,

'so we'll be able to see everything that they're doing underwater.'

The diver's communication and camera

is linked by a long umbilical cord back to the control van.

-DIVER:

-That's surface.

Really is, once you get in, it's cripplingly cold,

cos obviously with water always going in, always coming out,

it never, ever really warms up.

That's nowhere near it.

I'm literally a metre away from the thing.

No, we're having trouble with, erm,

getting the umbilicals down to you, mate. Give you some more slack.

He's made the job but we're going to have to move the van over,

he just can't work comfortably.

It's a difficult site. We've had a difficult access road to get up here

and then we've got to work around the dam,

and depending on what the water level is as well

and how far the diver's actually got to go,

so, erm, yeah, a little bit complicated, but we'll get there.

I think about here.

Back on the job.

All right, Paul, nice one.

I'm ready for the grinder, mate, when it's ready.

I'll just sort that out now for coming down to you. Stand by.

OK, thanks.

All right, mate, got the tool.

Roger dodge, got the tool.

Do you want to cut a bar out?

Removing one bar will make it easier to cut inside the pyramid.

All right, cut this one out here?

Yeah, cut flush with the, erm, bit that's going vertical.

-Haven't got any footing that side, you see.

-Say again.

Haven't got any footing to hold myself here, so it'll have to be...

Yeah, just come across the side, just do a square cut,

and we'll sort it all out when it comes out.

He's got nothing to stand on,

he's literally having to attach like a climber would do.

So he's free dangling whilst trying to operate a grinder.

So with just that process itself, it's going to be difficult

and there's no-one else there to give you a hand.

You're just there on your own.

What am I doing with this pole once I've cut it, John?

Bring it back with you.

The only thing I'm worried about is that it pings off down the riser.

Well, keep hold of it.

Rodge.

-All right, roger that, mate. We'll get that recovered, shall we?

-OK.

With it being underwater and it's all rough conditions,

it's hampered a little bit

and they've had to change the blades a couple of times.

Yeah, left, mate.

And cos they're using a hydraulic grinder,

it's quite a weight for the lads to have to pull up,

erm, over back up to the top so they can get the blades changed on it.

Arm's going weak.

Just takes ages with the disc, cos the disc's too thick.

Yeah, roger, a lot of material to cut out, isn't there?

I can see you're nearly through, though.

It's been quite a long day today, trying to get it off

what with the issues we've had with the angle grinder.

Just give me a one pull to surface.

On surface.

Welcome back, mate.

So, we're off to a school.

In Bolton, waste water engineer Adrian and his colleague Sam

are taking a break from sewers.

Best thing about school, though, were...

as well as the learning, obviously, school dinners. Couldn't beat it.

-Ah.

-But can you remember green custard?

-No. Green custard?

Green custard. Did you never have green custard? Mint custard?

-Mint custard?

-Yeah, brilliant.

I think we had Angel Delight,

I think that's about as far as we went. Mint custard.

-And, er, chicken supreme?

-No.

You must have gone to a way posher school than me, Sam.

We didn't have chicken supreme.

The children are learning to be journalists,

and Adrian and Sam have volunteered to be interviewed.

Yeah, I think it'll be fine, yeah.

I'm not too concerned about it.

You have to wing it a little bit sometimes,

but I'm sure we'll manage.

How much water does Bolton use in one year?

Do you want me to guess? I think the stats are that

the average household will use 150 litres of water a day.

That's 150 of them a day.

How can we prevent droughts?

Prevent droughts? Erm...

Does crime increase with flooding?

Does crime increase with flooding?

Why can't you breathe in water?

-Erm... I should know this, really, shouldn't I?

-Yeah.

-Erm...

What's the most disgusting thing you've found in the sewers?

I had to attend a sewer which run from an abattoir.

Does anyone know what an abattoir is?

No?

Is it a s... Kind of like a swamp?

-No.

-No. An abattoir is where, once animals have passed away,

and they go to, it's where they process the animals there.

Now, at this abattoir there was...

When we lifted this manhole that was full of water,

there was quite a few animal parts that was in,

that was in the manhole,

one of them being a pig's foot.

So that's probably the most disgusting one I can remember.

-INTERVIEWER:

-How was the crowd?

-Tough.

-Challenging.

-A lot tougher than I thought it would be, yeah.

I would like to do it, cos you'll get paid,

but I don't want to go down sewers.

-So you'd like the money?

-Yeah.

-But you wouldn't like the smell?

-No.

-If you worked with me, Abby, I'd probably go down with you.

You couldn't go down by yourself.

Yeah, I know.

Go down with five people if you want, a group.

-We've had to duck and dive a bit, haven't we?

-Yeah. It's a bit like

an interrogation but as long as they take something home with them.

Do you think it would be quite a disgusting place to spend a day?

-Yeah.

-Why?

Erm, because there's loads of creatures and dead animals, and...

-Spiders.

-Yeah, spiders.

And people's business.

LAUGHTER

What was that?

-People's business!

-People's business!

Yeah, we've learnt a few things today, one of them, er -

just how challenging, you know, children's questions can be, really.

There's been a serious water main burst

on a busy roundabout in Warrington.

-So, Lee, this is the main feed in.

-Yeah.

So how are we going to supply our key customer

and all these properties?

Lee's been called in by his boss, Lynn.

This burst could potentially affect up to 2,000 customers,

so obviously it's vitally important

that now we start getting things moving,

so they don't see what's going on.

Obviously we've got key customers, we've got schools, we've got

a hospital, which is the main hospital for Warrington.

Up to now, it's not affecting us that much.

It's not affecting the customers, but there's a risk that it could do.

So what we have to do now is get everything planned,

get everything ready, just in case it does get any worse.

Potentially we've got an issue if the road collapses,

so, we have to be ready for that.

It is a major route into Warrington and out of Warrington,

so we've got to be ready

and showing that we've got our contingency plans.

It's not just key customers like the hospital

and nearby soap factory that Lee and Lynn have to worry about.

They're also having to work with a big outside agency that has

more power than the water company -

the council.

It's not one of the best places.

Sankey Green Island, is probably one of the most, er,

traffic sensitive spots we've got in the borough.

And to actually look at taking it down to two lanes

from the three lanes will give us a major headache regarding congestion.

Can we narrow them two lanes?

He's just going to measure it now.

They need to work out exactly which bit

of the roundabout the leak is under.

-12 metres got me to this first white line.

-This one?

This first white line here.

But could be on this side of it.

If it's split and it comes into this lane more,

we'd have to take the two lanes out.

If you come on and shut that down to one lane, how long before we get

two lanes back?

Obviously we'd get the repair done overnight and then we'd get

it backfilled tomorrow and reinstate it over the weekend.

Obviously we need to get this back as soon as, don't we?

Hopefully, this is nonstop working until you can get it done.

They decide to start the job in the evening

and take it through the night.

Going to be a late night for you.

Well, yeah. It's one of them, innit?

-Help colleagues out, don't you?

-HE LAUGHS

My mother always said to me, "Now, little boy,

"when you go to work always make sure you wear a white shirt and tie."

And that's, oh, 50 years ago and I've done it every day.

Every day I go to work it's always a white shirt and tie.

Colin Fairclough is project manager on a £7 million pipeline scheme

near Blackburn that's nearing its end.

-Morning, dear.

-Morning.

-You OK?

Yes, fine, thanks.

He's a workaholic, full stop.

And if things don't please him, what he's doing,

he'll gladly take them down and start again.

I'm into my 51st year of working now.

Don't want to sit back and retire, cos I love life so much.

And Colin's decided there's only one way to get to work.

Most people are surprised when I tell them I'm a biker.

A lot of people at my age have a Harley,

but I'm not into the Harleys cos they're a lot slower and more sedate.

That bike will do 0-60 in less than three seconds,

so it's a rocket ship.

The aim of Colin's pipeline is to get water to a reservoir

that was previously supplied by a local river.

The Environment Agency has said to us that from August 2014

we're not allowed to take water from that river.

If we carry on taking water from that river, it will start

depleting the wildlife and it'll start affecting the plant life.

So we, United Utilities,

have had to find another source of where we can get the water from.

The pipe will take water instead from the main aqueduct

that comes down from the Lake District.

I've had this wand for many years, it's ideal if you're

just pointing out little things,

and saying, "That's where we're going."

Today, they have the tricky job of passing the new pipe

under these obstacles.

-So what's that...

-The black one?

-The four-inch one?

-The orange? That's BT.

-Oh, right!

If you have another look down there, you'll see a gas main,

and there's a couple of other services down there as well.

These are things that we have to contend with.

Whoa! Going in too high.

Release, or go back and lift it straight up.

It is like threading a needle. You've only got a small hole then.

He's saying pull it back a bit, lift it up a bit. Er, it's not easy.

Looks good!

Hold on.

Hold on a minute.

See the black one?

It's an old water main, and where that joint is there,

if he disturbs that there'll be water pissing out everywhere,

so he's got to be very, very careful there.

Try and take it that way.

Stop! It's on.

We don't like doing bits like this cos it's, as you've seen,

we've took most of the morning just messing about on this one corner.

This pipe crosses ten miles.

Now, after two years, the last piece is finally being laid.

Looking at this, it's going to be the end of the line.

Yeah, I feel quite happy really that, you know,

we've achieved it, because it's like climbing a mountain.

When you're at the bottom you think, "Oh, God, I can't climb all that."

When you're up there you have such elation that you've achieved something,

and that's how I feel now.

-Well, Peter, well done!

-All right, Colin.

Good job. Well done, lad, good job. Super.

I've really enjoyed it. What a wonderful job.

I want to start it again.

The specialist diving team have been called in to investigate

a faulty valve in a raw sewage tank.

When we do go down there, it's just watching the splash,

cos again it is effluent, all right.

I can't emphasise that enough. All right.

Shit.

-Yes, Lewis.

-You'll see it when you...

It's raining. I can't go diving.

It's what we call return activated sludge,

so it's actually a concentrated waste water that's

come out of the bottom of the tank,

so this is where all the bacteria are.

The fact that this is a waste water

and basically sewage is a little bit more of a challenge for them.

First in the tank will be dive supervisor John.

Was that a XXXL, was it?

-Extra small.

-There's a lot of air in it.

-It's the newness!

-Lot of hot air in there.

We don't think we're going to get any visibility either,

so they won't actually be able to see what they're doing.

They're going to be using their hands to do

a tactile survey of each of the valves.

This is one of the more, admittedly,

unpleasant environments that you can be with diving.

But after 15 minutes or so you get a mind's eye picture and

then before you know it, it's like as if you're seeing, to be honest.

Right, he's ready for the water there, Stu.

It's nice to see the dive supervisor going in now

and actually doing some work.

He's usually sitting in here in the warm drinking tea and coffee.

So it's his turn to get his feet wet, so to speak,

and show us how it's done.

All right, John, test your coms out. Do you hear me?

-Yeah, got you loud and clear, mate.

-You heading down, yeah?

Yeah, roger, going down.

Dive master Stuart will be keeping in constant contact.

In the poo.

Roger, in the poo.

And all stop there.

All stop, all stop.

Yeah, all stop there, mate.

Can I get some headlights?

There is absolutely no vis at all.

Is it a thick goo?

No, no, just water.

What're you doing now?

I'm doing in-situ repairs of the stuff that's there.

I've used heat lasers from my eyes and arse,

using the shit in here to convert methane

to high temperature to fuse the rods together

so everything's going to be fixed in about five minutes!

Roger that, sounds good!

May just be removing ten or 12 bolts,

but when you can't actually physically see what you're doing.

Plus you've got to have all your tools tied to you, cos you

can't... If you drop your spanner you're not going to find it.

-Need a wee!

-HE LAUGHS

In about four hours!

Never mind, John, that's your suit now.

-HE LAUGHS

-Roger!

After two hours in the chamber, John's done a third of the job.

Yeah, jet washer's over there, there's a drain over there.

It'll have to be finished tomorrow.

I can't work in a shop.

I can't do a retail, but I can do this.

Some other people can't do this,

and they're happy as Larry being in a retail in shop.

So, working to strengths, I think.

'Travel. BBC Radio Merseyside.

'Well, we've got problems in Warrington at the moment.

'It's the westbound carriageway of Liverpool Road.

'Two lanes have had to be closed and we've got queuing traffic.

'It's all because of emergency repairs,

'so it's lanes two and three.'

It's pretty annoying. I've been sat in traffic for about an hour,

just getting from one side of Warrington to the other.

Big nuisance, trying to get home for me tea.

As a taxi driver how does it affect you?

It affects us a lot, because I'm going home early,

cos there's that much traffic.

The road is dug up throughout the evening

to get to the burst water main.

Lee returns to turn down the water flows at ten o'clock.

I'll phone the centre just to let them know

we're starting our shut-offs, so the customers know.

Hello, Tracey, it's Lee McVay.

We're taking the valves now.

So if you get any calls just give us a ring and we'll put 'em back.

The aim is to slow the pressure to the burst without affecting

households and the local hospital.

Hopefully, this time of night, not like ourselves,

everyone else will be in bed, and, obviously, if anything does

go wrong, we can react then before, obviously, customers see it.

You can have a go if you want! Hard to just push!

While I get dizzy. Like the old game, isn't it?

Run round a broomstick.

You two go dancing out of work as well?

Yeah, yeah. Brian's a better dancer than me, though.

HE LAUGHS

Job's a good'un.

So do you mind doing late shifts like this one, Lee?

No, it's got to be done, hasn't it?

Sometimes, to be honest, we do a couple in a row, it's a bit hard,

but we do it because obviously it needs doing.

I mean, it's only now and then that they have to be done.

It's hard sometimes when the little fella phones you up,

and they're saying, "Good night, Dad."

Things like that, that's a bit hard sometimes.

But the kids are used to it, you're used to it.

So it's not that bad.

The main's still pressurised a little bit.

There's still water coming out, so that dirt

and soil and petrol off the road can't go into our main.

Er, come from Blackpool.

Has he?

The burst will be sealed with a special collar.

As you can see, the momentum's getting a bit faster now,

cos we're getting ready to go home.

-Tipping more water down your wellie. are you?

-Eh?

Tipping more water down your welly.

Yep, job done, everything went to plan on our side.

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

-We'll be in bed.

-Yeah, and we'll be in bed having a cup of tea.

What we expect to be about 100 tonne of fat. Ergh!

Might be deeper than we thought.

Oh, no, gets worse than this.

I've been down some of the dirtiest holes you could ever think of.

This is just a part-time job. What we do in real life,

we're actually fighter pilots.

Shiter pilots.