Sorab Shroff at his home where an open drain caused raw sewage to pollute his garden
Easter weekend turned into four days of hell for two Tottenham residents when a broken drain led to a constant flow of faeces onto their lawn.
On Friday, Sorab Shroff, 28, of Westbury Park Road, noticed an unpleasant smell coming from outside the ground-floor flat he shares with his partner.
He found the drain they share with the property above was blocked, and whatever was flushed down the toilet or sink was reappearing - in the garden.
Mr Shroff said: "The smell was awful. We've got these really large French windows and when I peeped out, all I saw was a big pile of you-know-what."
The pungent mess also spread into the neighbouring garden belonging to a young family.
The couple had to spend the next four days travelling to and from Mr Shroff's office, in Hammersmith, to take showers and use the bathroom or risk making the overflowing drains worse.
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Mr Shroff contacted Haringey Council's out-of-hours emergency service which was unable to help. He was told the broken drain belonged to a non-council property, although it is used by the council as temporary accommodation.
He was told to contact the landlady of the property upstairs to resolve the issue, as the temporary accomodation team could not be reached over the holiday weekend. But for legal reasons, the team was not allowed to give Mr Shroff the landlady's details, so he had no way of contacting her.
He said: "I'm angry it took so long to get something done. I was told it didn't constitute an emergency, but if constant flowing and settling of sewage exposed to the open air isn't an emergency then I don't know what is. It was unsanitary and unhygenic."
"I should have been enjoying time off. Instead I spent hours travelling to and from my office just to get clean.
"It was really embarassing and a total inconvenience."
The waste went ignored for six days and, in the end, Mr Shroff's partner took on the task of cleaning it up.
On Tuesday night, the council finally visited the property to repair the drain.
It is believed the blockage was caused by used cooking oil being poured down the sink.
A council spokesman said the landlord will be charged for having the drain cleared.
He said: "The repairs in this case were the landlord's responsibility. When we couldn't contact the landlord, we agreed to carry out the work ourselves, and completed it on Tuesday."
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