Couples who flush condoms down the loo after having sex are blocking British sewers with massive 'Johnnybergs', water officials have warned.
Anglian Water today released photos of drains blocked with enormous, congealed blobs of condoms, tissues and wet wipes in a bid to raise awareness.
If sewers become clogged, it can result in a back-up of foul-smelling waste, which can bubble up in toilets and bathrooms across the country.
The company is appealing to households and lovers to use more sense and stop flushing used condoms, wipes and sanitary towels down the loo.
The plea comes after the firm found 21 tonnes of the products blocking loos in Lincoln.
An Anglian Water source said "We find so many condoms in these huge, congealed blobs that we jokingly call them Johnnybergs."
The company believes 800 tonnes of wipes and sanitary items are being flushed every week across the East of England region.
UK water companies have now joined forces to ask Trading Standards to end the misleading 'flushable' claims that a lot of products make.
It is claimed that wet wipes and other waste are causing massive pollution - which is even poisoning turtles and other marine life out at sea.
Rachel Dyson, Anglian Water's Keep It Clear programme manager, said "Only the three 'p's should be flushed - pee, poo and (toilet) paper.
"Wipes cause real problems in the sewer network and have a devastating impact on customers.
"Wipes are by far the worst culprit but cotton buds, tampons and fats also cause problems in the sewers.
"They result in around 80 per cent of the 30,000 blockages across the East of England each year.
"Most of these blockages are entirely preventable, but instead lead to devastating sewage spills, can harm the environment and cost more than £15 million each year to clear.
"Ultimately this cost is added onto customers' water bills and would be better spent elsewhere.
"Even wipes labelled 'flushable' or 'biodegradable' don't break up fast enough to make it through the water recycling process.
"This, along with a build up of fats and greases wrongly put down the sink after cooking, is a rapidly growing problem."
Across the UK, water companies estimate it costs around £90 million a year to unblock sewers clogged up by wipes and hygiene products.
This does not include the human and environmental impact and cost.
Anglian Water said recently that enormous 'poobergs' - some the size of five elephants - are clogging the drains.
These mounds have to be blasted with high-pressure hoses.
More blockages are caused by housewives and kitchen staff pouring cooking fat down the sink.
It all sets hard in the pipes and mixes with other unflushables, such as baby wipes and cotton buds.
A spokesman said "This can not only cause problems for people at home, but clogged sewer pipes can cause flooding of untreated sewage into homes, gardens, streets and even end up in rivers, the sea and on beaches."
Earlier this year, a 'fatberg' as big as a transit van had to be blasted with power jets after families allegedly clogged the sewers with soiled nappies, used condoms, sanitary towels and cooking lardballs.
Water board officials had to put a team of engineers on the job to clear the enormous, foul-smelling, slimy lump of congealed waste in South Hykeham, Lincolnshire.
Thousands of gallons of water had to be jetted from a roadside tanker to 'explode' the 'fatberg', which threatened to send human excrement and other foul material up the pipes to bubble out into people's bathrooms and kitchen sinks.
Anglian Water, which says the 'berg' was 'entirely avoidable', has issued a desperate plea to residents not to flush wipes, nappies and condoms down their loos or to send cooking oil and grease blobs down their sinks.
A spokesman said "Eighty per cent of blockages are completely avoidable and are caused by fats being poured down sinks and wipes being flushed down toilets."
In April this year, it was claimed a 'staggering' number of fast food outlets in Oxford had caused two huge 'fatbergs' the size of double decker buses to clog up the city's sewers.
Thames Water officials said that only one in 20 of the city's takeaways and restaurants have been disposing of cooking fat and oil properly.
They visited 200 pubs, cafes, hotels and takeaways to find the cause of the vast underground build-ups of congealed fat in Oxford's drains.
Establishments where food is cooked and sold to the public are legally required to use effective 'grease traps' for the fats and oils.
But an incredible 43 per cent of managers and owners allegedly confessed they didn't even know what a grease trap was, while 80 per cent admitted to not having one installed.
The company's regional manager for the Thames Valley, Sean Walden, said: "It's normal to see more fat in sewers around foot outlets, but Oxford city centre is a major hotspot.
"We are regularly clearing large build-ups from the pipes and commissioned the survey to better understand why some outlets aren't disposing of their used fat and oil properly."
Thames Water reckons around 20 tonnes of fat - the size of two double decker buses - end up in the sewers of Oxford every year.
Mr Walden said: "The majority are keen to learn more about what they can do to help reduce 'fatbergs', which is really encouraging and our next steps are to explore how we can support them do the right thing."
And it's not just Oxford that is affected by 'fatbergs' - in neighbouring Bedfordshire, a line of the 'bergs' recently clogged a 328ft-long pipeline.
Anglian Water had to ship in a specialist robot with a high-pressured jet from Holland to zoom along the blocked sewers to blast the 'bergs' into chunks so they would gradually disperse.
And last year, a 'fatberg' the size of a Boeing 747 was discovered beneath the streets of Shepherds Bush in West London.
