Southern Water invests £6bn in Hampshire water network

Southern Water has revealed it is committing £900m to improving its water network in the county to deliver improved reliability of supplies of some of the "highest quality drinking water in the world".

Tim McMahon, director of water, explained that the company considers Hampshire's rivers Itchen and Test to be the "Amazon Rainforest" of chalk streams in the UK.

Despite this, he explained that at the moment, due to population growth, too much of this water is being used up, and "something needs to be done" to prevent this.

Southern Water recently applied for a drought order as a precautionary measure. To comply with legal procedures, the organisation applied for this 35 days ahead of the 'Hands off Flow' (HoF).

If a river's flow rate remains below a certain threshold for 35 consecutive days, it triggers a HoF condition, requiring water companies to reduce or stop abstracting water from that river.

Mr McMahon explained that this was issued as a "worst-case scenario."

He said: "We plan for the worst case scenario, and the Hands off Flow has only been breached once in history, and that was in 1976, and it only just breached it.

"There is a very small likelihood this year that we would enact our drought order, it is really less than five per cent.

"Going forward, we have record levels of investment into infrastructure."

With concerns raised over Hampshire's water supplies, Mr McMahon explained that Southern Water is implementing a new smart metering programme in the county, providing daily information and advice on how to change water habits in order to educate customers. This is due to be implemented on October 1.

Other unique and outside-of-the-box plans include training dogs to detect leaks by sniffing out chlorine.

Long-term, Southern Water is investing in a new reservoir for Hampshire, in Portsmouth, which will be the first new reservoir built in 40  years. The company is also creating a new water recycling plant in the Isle of Wight, which will be the first of its kind in the UK.

Mr McMahon said that Southern Water is "effectively replumbing Hampshire," with the "biggest investment plan in the UK for water resources."

A thematic issue for UK water suppliers is infrastructure. Mr McMahon said that historically, infrastructure targets have struggled to be hit.

We will be spending over £6bn on improvements to our Water assets across Southern Water between 2025-30, delivering improved reliability of supplies of some of the highest quality drinking water in the world, whilst becoming more resilient to our changing climate and delivering further protection to the environment here in the South East. 

The next steps in Southern Water's long-term programme for Hampshire’s water supply system will involve spending almost £900m between 2025 and 2030, including the next phases of incorporating the UK’s newest reservoir at Havant Thicket into treatment works at Otterbourne.

Over the next six years, Southern Water will be spending more than £350m to upgrade its treatment works at Otterbourne and Testwood, with more than £200m outlined for Testwood and more than £150m outlined for Otterbourne.

A further £150m will be spent on the Southampton Link Main project and more than £150m on the Isle of Wight Water Recycling Project. Around £330m will be invested into the Havant Thicket Reservoir, plus £1.2bn on the Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project.

The programme of work for Hampshire is already underway. As well as maintaining and upgrading the existing sites and water network, Southern Water will be spending in excess of £6bn before 2040 on the new strategic assets needed to secure Hampshire’s water supply and to provide protection for vulnerable habitats – especially globally scarce chalk streams in the county.