Around 200 bags stuffed with soiled medical supplies and coffee cups have been pulled from a riverbank in Lewisham.
Bags full of “soiled bandages, soiled plasters and soiled cotton wool” were cleared from next to the River Quaggy, near Lee High Road, on Monday by volunteers from the Quaggy Waterways Action Group.
The group’s chair Paul de Zylva has warned that some of the bags leaked and that the spillage has “contaminated the soil of the river bank”.
The 59-year-old told the Standard: “Four of us got onto the riverbank and cleared about 200 bags stuffed full of personal hygiene and medical waste. It was quite astonishing."
Clearing the banks of the #RiverQuaggy of 100s of bags of medical waste and coffee cups that someone has been dumping for months.#LeeHighRoad #LeeGreen #Lewisham pic.twitter.com/H4GQvEE0sI
— QWAG (@qwag) January 8, 2024
He added: “It was pretty nasty. It was like cotton wool mush with bodily fluids on it,” he added. “There were loads of McDonalds coffee cups.
"It was so-called disposable coffee cups and all this cotton wool, these bandages and plasters.”
Mr De Zylva, who works as an environmental researcher, warned that there was a chance the bags could have also contaminated the water when the river levels were higher.
He added: “As we lured ourselves down and started pulling [the bags] out we were sinking down the river bank because there were piles three, four, five deep.
“This was not a single dumping it was built up over time… It has basically altered the whole length of the river bank.
"You could not see any vegetation. You could not see any soil. I dare say it’s also not great if you’re trying to avoid rat infestations.”
The group said that the spot has been used as a dumping ground for most of 2023.
The river Quaggy is around 17km long and stretches through Bromley, Greenwich and Lewisham.
