A WORKER who says he drank raw sewage when he was picked up by a gush of effluent and carried down a pipeline is suing Sydney Water for damages.

Mark Jones says that he developed a burning skin rash, boils, scarring from the boils, diarrhoea and headaches after the incident on May 24, 2004, and can no longer work as a labourer.

He was laying sewer pipes at Liverpool Hospital under the direction of Sydney Water when sewage was discharged down the line, according to documents lodged with the Supreme Court.

"[Sewage] flowed down the sewerage line and washed the plaintiff along with it, causing him to be crushed and to swallow raw [sewage]," his statement of claim says.

He sued Sydney Water and the South West Sydney Area Health Service for failing to secure the line and yesterday settled his claim against the health service on confidential terms.