Sheffield Muslim burials: Shiregreen Cemetery's graves are flooded and it's traumatising Sheffield families

The Muslim community of Sheffield dread seeing their loved ones buried in Shiregreen Cemetery, it is claimed.

The north-east corner of the cemetery off Shiregreen Lane is exclusively for Muslim burials. It is at the bottom of the graveyard’s hill, is beautifully decorated with flags and flowers, and is tended by families who often visit every single day.

It is also completely waterlogged. And so are the graves.

“We put carrier bags on our boots to visit our loved ones,” said Shakil Ahmed, of the Sheffield Muslim Burial Council, an organisation recently recognised by the city council.

Digging more than six inches into the ground in the Muslim quarter can lead to a puddle welling up around your trowel. One son, Asif Diffa, removed a flagpole from a fixture on his mother’s grave for The Star and showed how two feet of it was dripping wet.

Empty graves dug in preparation for burials are often found filled with three-feet-deep water within days, it is claimed. Sheffield City Council insists this is surface run-off from rain.

“Families arrive on the day of their parents’ burial and find the council is still pumping water out of the grave,” said Shakil Ahmed. “Then they throw in wood chippings so it isn’t obviously wet for the service. It shows they know it is a problem.

“It is not surface run-off, but water from beneath the ground.”

See how the ground at Shiregreen Cemetery is waterlogged and the test the community carried out to ‘prove’ it is not the result of rainwater in the video above

As opposed to Christian or typical burials in the UK, one option for a traditional Muslim burial is the vault method. Here, a concrete vault with no bottom is put in the grave, then the coffin inside that, then a lid over the vault, and then the grave is filled with earth.

It leaves something of a cavity around the deceased - cavities families say are filling with water after the burial.

A group of 12 men met The Star at Shiregreen Cemetery on April 25 to talk about their distress, and all of them spoke of the same mental image - of loved ones “drowning,” “swimming”, and being “buried in a bathtub.”

"I don't want to leave my mum in water. I feel like I've betrayed her,” said Asif Diffa, 33.

“After my mum died six months ago, I have gone on anti-depressants and a huge part of it is I can't get away from the image of my mum surrounded by water.”

"It's hard knowing the fact that your loved ones are swimming in water, buried in a bathtub,” said Osman Suleman of the Muslim Burial Council.

“I’ve had phone calls at midnight from people who can’t sleep thinking of their loved ones in water, asking what are we going to do about it.”

Another man, Mohammed Younis, 36, said: "My grandparents are saying 'please don't bury me in there."

Another said: “I have nightmares - I wake up in a sweat thinking of my parents drowning."

Mohammed Latif, a volunteer who has been helping with burials since 1994, says she has seen issues with waterlogged graves for 15 years.

It means potentially hundreds of people in Sheffield are suffering the trauma of picturing the remains of their loved ones buried in several feet of water - and feel powerless to prevent it happening to someone else they care about whenever their time comes.

However, the group feels their pleas have been ignored by the city council, and say they have been raising the issue for years.

They also believe the council is ignoring concerns that flooding is happening in occupied graves while saying it is only empty graves affected, and only from rain water.

The group is also frustrated that a previously promised ground water assessment on Shiregreen has reportedly been expanded to the whole city - which they feel just only delays when Shiregreen will be assessed.

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Now, the group is calling for the council to take action at Shiregreen and commit to either installing drainage for the cemetery or a sceptic tank.

“This is not a failure of weeks or months but of years,” said Osmen Suleman. “People have reached a boiling point and will not accept this anymore.

“Rotherham’s cemetery has a beautiful drainage system.”

A Sheffield City Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of concerns within the Muslim community about the presence of water in empty graves at Shiregreen Cemetery.

“The council want to be clear that they understand these concerns and want to reassure all our communities that we continue to aim to provide a compassionate, dignified, and respectful provision for everyone.

“The council is reviewing the ground conditions at Shiregreen Cemetery... we are exploring the option of commissioning a tier two ground water risk assessment...

“It is quite normal for graves to collect some water in the bottom during periods of wet weather... Where necessary, graves are pumped and prepared for a dignified burial shortly before the funeral takes place.

“With regards to claims that water is coming from ‘below graves’, the team at Shiregreen Cemetery are monitoring the situation, however, when new graves are dug, at no point is the water table being hit. If this was to happen, the burial plot would not be used.

“Whilst this is fully investigated the council have made several changes to reassure those who have concerns, including providing same day digging on weekdays, and using graves in the higher part of the burial plot.”

Meanwhile, members of the South Yorkshire Muslim Burial Trust, an organisation recognised by the City Council, contacted The Star to say the Muslim Burial Council “does not represent” the community’s feelings.