A CURRY house owner with more than 25 years' experience has called for authorities to do more to stop a city-wide fatberg crisis.

Aziz Rahman, who ran Aziz restaurant in Cowley Road and recently opened up in Headington Quarry, said it was not time to be "pointing fingers" after Thames Water revealed 95 per cent of food outlets were not disposing of fat properly.

The water firm surveyed 200 restaurants and found that almost all of them were contributing to 20 tonnes of congealed fat clogging up Oxford's sewers each year.

Mr Rahman said he had to find out for himself how to correctly store and dispose of fat.

He said: "We have not had any personal problems. There are ways of storing fat and grease and there are people who will come and collect it for you free of charge.

"It's just about getting to know about it and finding the right people. No one told us – we just found out from other restaurateurs."

He added: "Rather than pointing fingers there needs to be more done to create the understanding.

"Thames Water could do more, certainly, and the council should be working with restaurants on this.

"Everyone should be practising this properly."

Chinese restaurant the New Dancing Dragon, one of the restaurants surveyed, has since installed a grease trap that will prevent nearly 1,500 litres of greasy gunge reaching the sewers each year.

Manager Kin Lau said city restaurants "didn't realise" the extent of the problem.

He said: "I think we were one of the first restaurants in Oxford to fit a grease trap.

"There has been much more in the news recently about fatbergs and restaurants are starting to realise what they can do to help alleviate the problem."

The water company's investigation revealed that only five per cent of the city's takeaways and restaurants were disposing of fat and oil properly.

Just under half of managers and owners did not know what a grease trap was and 80 per cent admitted to not having one on the premises.

Mr Lau said: "You would be surprised by what the traps can do.

"We are storing about four litres each day, which over a year would be nearly 1,500 – it's quite incredible."

Mr Lau said Thames Water praised the restaurant for tackling the problem so quickly and the manager encouraged others to follow suit.

Thames Water regional manager Sean Walden said it had been a "useful" exercise and the company would work to support restaurants in doing the right thing from now on.