Residents living in an East Cambridgeshire village are finding sewage in the homes and gardens after heavy rain.

A number of people at the northern end of Ely Road, in Little Downham, say they are facing problems because sewage is overflowing from manholes.

They have also shared concerns that the situation will only get worse as more houses are built in the area.

Anglian Water said the heavy rainfall seen in Little Downham was causing “widespread infiltration” of water into the sewers.

The company said all this water meant there was less room for sewage, which it recognised was causing problems.

It added that the solution to the situation would require different organisations, businesses, and landowners to work together.

Henry Martin, who lives along Ely Road, said: “We happen to be sitting at a low point here and I have got a manhole there. My plant room has flooded, it was a depth of an inch of sewage.

“The sewage that flooded in was very dilute, the reason it was dilute is because what happens is the main flow drain coming down the road here gets inundated with storm water and floods the system and it cannot get that on to the sewage works quickly enough.

“If it keeps happening I will dig a ditch into the storm water ditch and that will just overflow.

“I think now I will take the manhole lid off in times of heavy rain, so it will flood this area [of the garden], and at least it will not come into the house.”

Mr Martin said he also knew other villages were facing similar problems, and that he knew some people elsewhere in worse situations.

East Cambridgeshire District Council approved plans earlier this month to build 39 new homes on land off Ely Road.

A spokesperson for Anglian Water said they recognised there was an issue with storm water causing a problem for the sewer network in the village.

They said: “Our teams continue to work incredibly hard to keep our sewer network running despite the persistent bad weather we’ve seen this winter.

“In Little Downham the ongoing rainfall combined with the already saturated ground, mean that we’re seeing widespread infiltration of excess water into our sewer network – there is simply a lot of water with nowhere to go."