The holiday season is a time when many plumbing contractors take the opportunity to make an extra contact with customers to remind them how to take care of their plumbing when their homes are filled with family and friends.

Extra water use and additional trips to the bathroom can put extra stress on a system, but it’s the cooking grease and fat that gets sent down the drain after big meals that can create big problems for a home’s plumbing. Most people don’t think about it until the drains stop flowing, so contractors use a variety of techniques to remind their customers of the potential problems. Typically it’s just a card, email or reminder on the company website, but one group of sewer workers went a bit further.

Eight London sewer cleaners created a bit of an underground sensation when they took to the sewer to film a short video reminding Londoners not to send the leftover fat and grease from their Christmas turkeys down the drain. These Singing Sewermen, with tambourines, red noses and Santa hats, performed a reworked version of the carol Good King Wenceslas in knee-deep flow deep below the city.

The video can be seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1rItAH60MU.

Thames Water will donate $1.55 to WaterAid for every hit the film gets on YouTube through Jan. 31 (up to a maximum of 200,000 views) to support the charity’s work to improve access to safe water and sanitation to the world’s poorest people.
Find out more about the Singing Sewermen and their work at
www.thameswater.co.uk/binit.