Thames Water is to carry out a £190 million upgrade at Europe's largest sewage works, Beckton in east London, to help clean up the River Thames.

The upgrade at Beckton, due for completion in 2014, forms part of Thames Water's London Tideway Improvements programme. This is made up of three major schemes: the £600million Lee Tunnel project, the proposed Thames Tunnel and a £675 million investment to improve London's five principal sewage works including Mogden, Crossness, Long Reach and Riverside.

The improvements, planned to start this spring, will enable the site to treat 60 per cent more sewage than it does now, so it can:

• fully treat increased flows during heavy rainfall, which currently discharge into the River Thames when the site becomes overloaded to prevent streets and homes from flooding;
• treat additional storm flows from the Lee Tunnel, a new four-mile sewer which will capture storm sewage that currently overflows into the River Lee when the sewerage system gets overwhelmed during heavy rainfall. The expansion has also been designed to accommodate additional flows from the proposed Thames Tunnel.

In addition, the company will be investing a further £67million as part of a separate project to cover the smelliest parts of the site, including the primary settlement tanks, to significantly reduce odour emissions by 50 per cent.

Steve Shine, Thames Water's Chief Operating Officer, said:

"We have earmarked  a total of £350million to improve Beckton over the next five years. This expansion marks a fundamental step in improving the quality of London's iconic river, while also serving the future needs of London and achieving significant  environmental  benefits, including reducing odour.

"We inherited a Victorian sewerage system, which is struggling to cope with the demands of 21st Century London. Since it was built, the capital's population has trebled, climate change is bringing less frequent but heavier rainfall and many green spaces have been concreted over, preventing natural drainage.

"Although our sewage works operate well under stable, dry weather conditions, in heavy rainfall when the site is overwhelmed, excess flows recieve a lower standard of treatment and overflow into the tidal stretches of the River Thames.

"This work will enable us to fully treat 60 per cent more sewage arriving at the site during heavy rainfall, and allow for a 10 per cent population increase until 2021.

"On top of this, we’ll also be erecting odour-blocking covers over all 16 primary settlement tanks at the plant - an  area  the size of ten football pitches - and installing 'odour-control units' at the site to clean outgoing air, so we can substantially reduce odour emissions by 2015."

Wind turbine to form part of scheme

As well as helping to protect the River Thames, other benefits resulting from the scheme include:

• the installation of a 1.5MW wind turbine that will help generate eight per cent of the energy needed to power the site;
• enhancing the landscape within the sewage works site and improving the Barking Creekside habitat to encourage wildlife, including creating a new nature trail;
• opening footpaths around the site and river and creating new paths along the northern edge of the site by the River Roding and River Thames.

The London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC), the Government's lead regeneration agency for east London, approved plans for the scheme in October 2009. Thames Water has awarded the £140 million contract for the sewage works extension to Tamesis - a joint venture between Laing O'Rourke and Imtech Process Ltd - ahead of construction starting this spring.