A family were left to live with a river of human faeces in their back garden for a week before it was cleared up.

A relatively simple job to clear a blocked sewage pipe turned into a seven day ordeal for Javed Rafiq and his family, who live in Tolworth Rise North.

Even now, the lingering stench of sewage is such that he cannot open windows or go into the garden to hang out washing. Thames Water has since apologised to the family for the "unacceptable" amount of time it took to clear the blockage.

Mr Rafiq, a software professional, said: "There was a blockage in the shared line, which should have been resolved in a couple of days.

"However since it was first reported there has been failure upon failure of their contractors who have turned up to fix the shared sewage line.

"Right equipment is not brought with the vehicle, wrong vehicles turn up to try and fix the blockage.

"I have spoken to at least seven different Thames Water customer service representatives in as many days."

He added: "There is still a stench coming from the garden, as I cannot open the windows to even let fresh air in nor go into the garden to hang out the washing.

"All I get is the stench of the sewage."

The sewer which serves a number of homes along the road was finally fixed on Friday, January 23.

A spokesman from Thames Water said: "We’re very sorry Mr Rafiq had to wait for so long for the blockage to be cleared - this is unacceptable and we should have acted faster.

"We needed to access the sewer from the gardens of other properties in the road and this was difficult to organise, however we plan to come back, clean this section of pipe, and thoroughly check it for signs of wear and tear to try to prevent this problem happening again."