Panic buying has led to blocked sewers across the UK as people with no toilet roll are forced to use alternatives.

An increasing number of sewers are being clogged with wipes, kitchen roll and newspaper as coronavirus stockpiling leaves shelves bare, Northumbrian Water has revealed.

The company, which serves Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham and parts of North Yorkshire, has warned that blockages risk ‘devastating consequences’ for the community.

It comes as Kimberly-Clark, which makes Kleenex and Andrex, says Britons ‘just don’t need to stockpile’ toilet paper, pointing out that the company makes 3.5 million rolls every single day.

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Simon Cyhanko, Head of Wastewater Networks at Northumbrian Water, has asked people to ‘help by making one small change – and that’s to put wipes and any alternatives in the bin’.

He said: ‘Blockages can have devastating consequences, from causing people’s homes to be flooded with toilet waste to the environment being polluted, but by binning the wipe and toilet roll alternatives you can help make a massive difference.

‘No one wants to see harm to the environment and to innocent wildlife, or homes flooded with sewage, which isn’t a pleasant experience at any time and especially now, if vulnerable people need to self-isolate because of Covid19.

‘Wipes and alternatives, may leave your toilet bowl when flushed, but can clog up your plumbing and cause avoidable plumber callout charges. Even biodegradable products often don’t break down as quickly as toilet paper and can linger in sewer pipes, contributing to blockages.

‘If customers are going to use any sort of wipe or toilet roll alternative, then please bin them. Toilets are not a bin.’

According to research, 64% of the 15,600 blockages cleared in 2019 were caused by wet wipes.

But any blocked sewers linked to the coronavirus crisis are completely unnecessary, as Kimberly-Clark tells the nation ‘there is just no need to panic buy’.

A spokesman said: ‘We make one billion loo rolls a year that’s enough to stretch easily around the country.

‘The trucks are going out replenishing stock all the time but the problem is that as soon as it’s going out people are buying it straight away and they just don’t need to.’

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