Floods leave river festooned with rubbish and looking like 'Third World country'

Shocking photographs show how a stretch of river has been left looking 'like a Third World country' after it became 'festooned' with rubbish in the aftermath of flooding.

Huge parts of the River Soar is now strewn with household and industrial waste following widespread flooding caused by Storm Henk in Leicester.

Hundreds of thousands of items of litter can be seen washed up along the riverbank and stuck in trees along a stretch spanning more than a mile.

One university academic, who researches plastic pollution in the environment,
revealed she had never seen anything like it in the UK before.

Professor Sarah Gabbott, of the University of Leicester, said the scenes even reminded her of parts of Africa she had visited as part of her research.

She has now warned people who have been fly-tipping and dropping litter in the area that their actions are having a 'devastating' impact and killing wildlife.

She said: "I have never seen anything like this in the UK before.

"These scenes would not be out of place in some of the developing countries I have visited as part of my research such as Africa.

"I have been to Nairobi, in Kenya, and Malawi and witnesses similar sights to this and we have much better waste management systems in place.

"It's unbelievable really. I could not believe my eyes when we stumbled across it.

"The river is just festooned in plastic bags and material of all different colours and types.

"It looks almost like there's a landfill, which has just been shoved into the River Soar.

"It's a scary snapshot of what lies underneath the river, which we don't usually get to see."

Prof Gabbot said the filth was left behind when the floods brought rubbish which was already in the river to the surface.

She said as well as aluminium cans and plastic bottles, she had also spotted kitchen units, fire extinguishers, car bumpers, tricycles, barbecues, mattresses and sofas in the wake of Storm Henk.

She believes much of the issue derives from people fly-tipping waste in a brook further upstream as well as discarding litter with little care for the environment.

Prof Gabbott, who also volunteers with the Green Circle Nature Regeneration CIC, added litter dropped on streets also ends up washed into the river due to rain.

She said: "We had these incredible floods and the water has risen, broken over the banks and all the rubbish in the river has been washed across the flood plain.

"Now it is stranded so we can see it. It is like our dirty litter has been hung out to dry where we can all witness it

"There's a nearby brook which has a bad fly-tipping problem - we see huge amounts of industrial and household waste dumped there.

"I've seen massive offcuts of textiles and labels discarded - fire extinguishers, kitchen units, tricycles, barbecues, TV's, mattresses, sofas, everything really.