Eton College has delayed its school term after toilets in its boarding houses backed up due to recent floods.
Scared sirs penned a desperate message to parents urging them to keep their children away for now.
‘I am very sorry to say that Thames Water have just alerted us to the fact that their sewerage drains are back filling due to flood water,’ the note said.
‘The sewers in the centre of Eton won’t cope with the arrival of nearly 1,350 boys,’ it added.
Today was supposed to be the start of lessons but they have had to be run remotely over the internet instead, Bloomberg revealed.
Pupils were due to return on Tuesday evening and start lessons on Wednesday after the floods
Teachers had warned ‘The sewers in the centre of Eton won’t cope with the arrival of nearly 1,350 boys’
Eton, near Windsor, is one of the most famous schools in the UK.
It charges fees of about £50,000 a year per pupil and Princes William and Harry, as well as current Foreign Secretary David Cameron attended.
‘We cannot safely operate as a school until Thames Water have resolved the issues around our sewerage drains,’ the email seen by continues.
Thames Water updated its website with a notice on Jan. 8 that ‘the heavy rainfall of recent weeks and a high water table have put huge pressure on our sewers and pumping stations.’
A tanker pumps out excess sewage from the Lightlands Lane sewage pumping station in Cookham, Berskhire
A road has been closed next to Eton College in Eton, Windsor, Berkshire due to flooding
Thames has been at the center of a crisis engulfing the industry as calls from the public and politicians to stop releasing sewage into waterways coincided with soaring debt costs. Parts of England experience some of the worst flooding in years last week, with hundreds of flood warnings including for the Severn and Thames rivers.
Eton said it is in regular contact with Thames Water as the company tries to resolve the situation and it hopes to welcome students back soon.
A Thames Water representative said its engineers are looking into sewerage issues at Eton College and apologized to staff and students. Heavy rainfall and river flooding overloaded the local sewer, they added.