Havant Thicket Reservoir and water recycling

Keeping taps and rivers flowing

Did you know? There are only 200 chalk rivers in the whole world, and 80 per cent of those are in southern and eastern England. These precious and rare habitats, and the wildlife that lives there, need our protection. That’s why our neighbour, Southern Water, has agreed to take less from two chalk streams in its supply area, the River Test and the River Itchen in Hampshire. While this is the right thing to do, reducing abstraction from these two rivers will leave the company short of 192 million litres of water per day in droughts.

We’ve agreed to help, by building the brand new Havant Thicket Reservoir, just outside Havant. This will mean we can transfer up to 21 million litres of water per day, to Southern Water, when needed.. This plan is going ahead, with work on building the reservoir already underway.

Water recycling proposals

However, there’s another potential option, which would allow us to share even more water with Southern Water – up to 90 million litres a day extra from the reservoir. It involves recycling treated wastewater, using tried and tested technology. Water recycling has already been used in many other countries for decades. By adding recycled water to Havant Thicket Reservoir, we can help protect our precious chalk rivers and make sure we all have the water we need in the future.

Our research shows that 7 out 10 Portsmouth Water customers support water recycling as a way forward, and would be happy to drink recycled water (Survey of 700 people conducted in April 2022).

The water recycling proposals are known as the Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project, a scheme which is subject to further statutory public consultation in 2024, as well as approval by regulators and planning permission being required. Both the already approved reservoir scheme, and the water recycling proposals, if they went ahead, would be paid for by Southern Water through its drinking water customer bills.

Where to find out more

Further detail about water recycling and Havant Thicket Reservoir is available by visiting our additional webpages listed below. You can also read the Frequently Asked Questions section on this page.

• What is water recycling?
• How will Havant Thicket Reservoir operate, including if recycled water is added to it?
• What safeguards are in place to protect my drinking water?
• What impact would the water recycling proposals have on the environment and recreation at Havant Thicket Reservoir?
• How can local people have their say on the water recycling proposals?