What impact would the water recycling proposals have on the environment and recreation at Havant Thicket Reservoir?

Hello, many thanks for your comments, which we’ve addressed below. We would also like to thank you for your patience while we have been compiling our response and apologise for not coming back to you sooner. We fully appreciate the professional experience you have in water resources planning, but have compiled our answers with the wider public in mind, as this text is being published on our Havant Thicket Reservoir webpages, as part of our ongoing work to raise awareness and understanding about this important topic.

Firstly, it’s important to point out that the water resources planning guidelines, as laid down by the Environment Agency, have changed markedly in recent years. This reflects the growing challenges of addressing the impacts of climate change and population growth, as well as the increased importance of protecting and supporting the environment by leaving more water in it. The latest guidelines are available via: Water resources planning guideline - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

As a result, rather than plans being based on what has happened historically, we now need to plan for what could happen in the most challenging scenarios. So, rather than planning to cater for a drought like those experienced in England in 1976 or 2005, which were droughts with return periods of <1 in 80 years, we now need to plan to supply customers in an extreme 1 in 500 year drought. In this context, we need to build greater resilience by looking at new sources of water, such as water recycling, that are not reliant on rivers and underground aquifers. During the more severe droughts we could experience in future, we would not be able to take water from rivers and aquifers, as we would do during normal conditions, due to low flow / water levels.

Furthermore, water resources planning is no longer a local water company issue and the whole industry will increasingly trade larger and larger volumes of water across boundaries between water companies. The five regional water resources plans for England include a number of schemes to transfer significant amounts of water from areas where it’s available, to areas where it is very much needed. For example, there’s a proposed scheme to use the Grand Union Canal to transfer recycled water from the West Midlands to London and the Home Counties. A summary of these strategic water resources projects can be found online at: The RAPID gated process and the proposed water resource solutions - Ofwat. 

In terms of the particular challenges we face in our region, as you may already be aware, water is scarce in the South East England, with the area officially classed by the Environment Agency as water stressed’. In Hampshire, Southern Water has agreed to take significantly less water from the River Test and the River Itchen, to protect and support these rare and sensitive chalk streams. This leaves the company with a daily deficit of over 160 million litres of water in its Hampshire supply area in the event of prolonged dry weather. 

We are in a position to help with a solution to this major challenge, something we’re happy to do as a community-orientated company that prides itself on doing the right thing. This is because of the large number of natural springs in the Havant area, which provide 30 per cent of the water we supply to our customers. These springs deliver a high quality, sustainable supply of water all year round.

Southern Water has considered a wide range of options in developing its future planning, including around new storage reservoirs. The original Havant Thicket Reservoir scheme, which received planning permission in October 2021, is included in both Portsmouth Water and Southern Water’s current Water Resources Management Plans (WRMP19). This was because it was considered the best way forward in helping address the shortfall in water supplies that Southern Water is facing. This was due to the suitability of the site for the reservoir, which Portsmouth Water has owned since the mid-1960s, particularly in terms of its close proximity to a sustainable source of water, namely the prolific springs in nearby Havant.

Under the already approved reservoir scheme, surplus water from these local springs will be used to fill the reservoir during winter. This will enable us to provide up to 21 million litres of water a day to Southern Water during a drought, helping it maintain supplies to customers and keep more water in the Test and Itchen rivers.

However, even if we transfer 21 million litres of water per day to Southern Water, they will still be left with a significant deficit and another solution is needed. The Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project is designed to make the best use of Havant Thicket Reservoir during drought scenarios, given that funding to build and operate the reservoir is already secured. If approved to go ahead, it would see Havant Thicket Reservoir supplemented with purified recycled water, enabling the reservoir to supply a further 90 million litres of water a day to Southern Water when needed. A public consultation on the scheme is running until 23 July 2024. Please see Home - Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project (hampshirewtwrp.co.uk) for more.

Southern Water’s key focus is on improving its performance, with a clear Turnaround plan in place to achieve this across a range of measures. You can read more about the plan at: Our Business Turnaround Plan | Southern Water, with the latest update on progress the plan to be found at: turnaround-plan-6-month-update-may-24.pdf (southernwater.co.uk).

In terms of Havant Thicket Reservoir being supplemented with recycled water, again, as you will recall, we already continuously monitor the quality of water at all of our sites with data automatically captured, analysed and checked in real time to ensure that we maintain excellent water quality that complies with regulatory standards.  

The same methods and control systems would apply to the proposed water recycling plant that would be built in Havant as part of the Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project. If there were any issues with the quality of the water being produced at the water recycling plant, the control system would automatically shut the plant down, ensuring that water which did not meet the required standards would not enter the reservoir.

Furthermore, as with all of our water sources, any water from Havant Thicket Reservoir would be treated to meet strict drinking water standards before being supplied to customers.

With best regards.