help! garden/run flooded for the third time this month. hens in the house to keep dry

[Xtineart]

I dont know what to do. the sewer drains are either blocked or over capacity since a new housing development was built up the hill and every time it rains they overflow, complete with human waste, tissues etc all over our garden and our neighbours properties. So far we are being fobbed off with a 'well it's heavy rain/capacity/70% rain water' excuse and told simply not to use our back yards for a week after the water dries up to ensure the worst parasites/infections/bugs are no longer at dangerous levels.

BUT I keep chickens, I dont want to have to get rid of my hens and their run is flooded with sewer rain water. As it is I am having to lift them out of the very small cramped coop in the morning and bring them into the house until it's late when I can put them back in a closed coop. If I leave them in they bite and peck each other and scream to be let out and it's too small a coop to put food or water into anyway. I can let them wade through or drink human waste and I dont know what to do. The first time was awful, but this has now happened 3 times since the start of December and I am at the end of my tether with what to do. It's so upsetting.

What can I do to keep my hens warm and dry and out of danger (plus trust the eggs to be edible) during this as I really cant bear to part with them, I'm getting nowhere with the council/water authority and local MP. Environmental health wont get involved at all saying it's the water authorities issue. I cant even move house as no one in their right mind is going to want to buy a property knee deep in sewage.

help

 

[enola]

Call the Environmental Protection Agency

 

[dawg53]

Since contacting your local government agencies is useless...time to contact the media.

 

[enola]

That's an idea!

 

[JanetMarie]

Start a petition with your other neighbors and as a group do as the above posts suggest.

 

[enola]

Where do you live?

 

[Xtineart]

Scotland .The media! that's an idea, the environmental health say it's a scottish water issue, scottish water say it's simply capacity and they've palmed it off for 6 months now. I've tried the local councillors and so have my neighbours with no resolve, I've now put it on facebook/twitter etc, raised it as a claim on my home insurance, taken video and photo evidence and bunged them on social media and have been contacted in response by by local member of parliament.

I cant cope with this any longer, I think even the hens are about to give up and cry.

 

[enola]

OK, now we understand the obstacles. In the USA ignoring raw sewage has SEVERE legal ramifications.

 

[Xtineart]

oh crist, now I have 3 confused tired hens sitting in my kitchen wondering why the cannot get to their beds, and they wont be able to return to their beds at least for another 2 weeks as everything is covered in raw human effluent. Scottish water have still not attended but the council have been out as it is now running down the main road. actual lumps of poo. IN THE ROAD. happy sodding new year here.

 

[enola]

What a start to the new year! You have my sympathy.