Last year the company was fined £32,000 after a fat-clogged sewer backed up, causing sewage to enter a stream in the city known as the Roaring Meg Drain.

Following the fine, Anglian Water pledged to take steps to keep sewage out of the area’s surface water drains and do more to tackle the root cause of the problem – cooking fat being poured down plugholes.

The ‘Keep It Clear’ campaign team is being sent into the city to speak with residents and food outlets and ask them to think twice about what they are putting into the sewers.

There were 175 blockages in Lincoln during the year to last April. This year, the total is on course to top 200.

 Letters will be sent to more than 3,000 homes , asking people to put items like sanitary waste and wipes into the bin rather than flushing them away.

At the same time, restaurants, pubs, take-aways and catering businesses will be visited and given a ‘how to’ pack including posters, stickers and information on the correct way to dispose of used fat, oil and food scraps.

There will also be a roadshow with giveaways and demonstrations at the Waterside Shopping Centre on Saturday, February 18.

Paul Gibbs, Anglian Water’s Director of Wastewater, said:

“What happened in the sewers under Searby Road last summer is a dramatic example of what can happen if the sewers get clogged up with fat and with items like wipes and sanitary products which are wrongly flushed down toilets.

“Sewage backed up and found its way into the surface water drains that direct rainwater into the stream.

“We were fined, rightly, because we had not done enough to keep sewage out of those surface water drains in the event of a blockage. That has been put right.

“But the cause of that blockage was fat and rags. If we are to prevent future pollutions, if we are to stop the blocks that cause sewage to back out of manholes and threaten people’s homes, gardens and businesses, then we have to tackle the root of the problem.

“That’s why we have chosen Lincoln for the next stage of our highly successful Keep It Clear campaign.”

Launched in Peterborough last summer, Keep It Clear aims to explain the consequences of putting the wrong things into sewers.

More than half of the 15,000 sewer blockages Anglian Water has to clear across the region each year are caused by fats, oils and grease (FOG) and so-called ‘unflushables,’ which can bind together, blocking pipes and fouling pumps.

Clearing such sewer blockages currently costs the company £7 million a year.