A disabled man has praised pioneering sandless sandbags as he says they are so easy to use. 

Peter Ashworth, 70, is a paraplegic who lives in the village of Codnor in Ripley, Derbyshire. 

He has a problem with his garage flooding and was provided with FloodSax by Derbyshire County Council to soak up water which seeps inside. 

Peter said: “The water penetrates the back of our garage where it is built into a banking. This happens every time we have a period of heavy rain. 

“The FloodSax have been very effective at stopping the incoming water and soaking it up – stopping it from damaging items stored in the garage - and we have had to leave them in position constantly in case of rain. 

“They soak the water up like a sponge which is great because when we have 24 hours of rain it can get up to half-an-inch deep in the back of the garage and then creeps forward but the FloodSax stop it from encroaching any further and soaks it up.” 

Peter added: “Because I am disabled my wife Avril has to do this work and when the sacks are full we have to get a friend to come and move them. He takes them to the local council tip which accepts them because the FloodSax are biodegradable.” 

FloodSax have been officially endorsed by the National Disabled Fire Association that supports disabled people working in the fire service and the wider communities in which they serve. 

FloodSax are transformed from being as light as a pillowcase to being more effective than traditional sandbags in just three minutes.

Many homes and businesses worldwide now have a pack of FloodSax sandless sandbags so they are ready for any flooding emergency. They are space-saving to store but can be transformed into sandbags within minutes simply by adding water which causes the special polymer gel inside the FloodSax to expand. 

Around 2.5 million have now been sold worldwide.