Portsmouth Water has announced plans to build a new major water resource for the South East – a reservoir at Havant Thicket- with the launch this morning of a consultation on its draft water resources management plans.

The water company is inviting customers and stakeholders to comment on its proposals to secure water supplies for the next 25 years. The consultation lasts until 25th May 2018.

The draft plan sets out how the water company will secure resilient water supplies for customers for the next 25 years. Portsmouth has considered how much water is available today, how much will be required to supply in the future and then developed a number of options to make up any difference.

In addition to meeting the needs of its own customers Portsmouth has also been asked to provide more water through bulk transfers to neighbouring water companies who will have less water available for supply in the future.

The plan includes a proposal to reduce leakage by 15% and install more water meters to help customers to save water. Having looked at current water resources Portsmouth is also proposing to build a new reservoir at Havant Thicket – to store water, create a nature reserve and provide community facilities as well as allowing it to provide valuable water resources for the south east region in general.

Portsmouth already share supplies with Southern Water’s customers in West Sussex – up to 15 million litres per day – and have done since 2004. This year it will also start sharing a further 15 million litres a day with Southern Water’s customers in Hampshire.

Southern Water is now looking for a further 30 million litres of water each day to supply its customers in Hampshire because it needs to reduce the amount of water it can take from the River Test and River Itchen.

The reservoir, which would take 10 years to plan, build and fill with water, would be located on land already owned by Portsmouth Water. The utility would also need to build a pipeline taking water from springs in Havant to the reservoir.

The water from the reservoir would not be supplied to Southern Water – it would free up current sources from the River Itchen to share. Portsmouth would charge Southern Water for the extra water which would pay for the reservoir to be built – so customer bills are not expected to increase.

Launching the consultation, Neville Smith, Managing Director of Portsmouth Water said:

“We have already held conversations with customers about their water supplies and what’s important to them and these have been taken into account in this draft plan. An exciting part of our plan is a new major water resource for the South East – a reservoir at Havant Thicket.

“This reservoir will help us share our other water resources with other water companies and increase the reliability of our customer supplies. We do not expect building this new resource to have any impact on customers’ bills as it will be funded by charges for the transfer of water from our other resources to neighbouring companies.

“What is important now is for customers to have their say. We want to hear from as many as them as possible. This can be done by visiting our website at www.portsmouthwater.co.uk where they can read our plan in more detail and then let us know their views by answering our short questionnaire. It’s our customer’s water and their views will help us decide how we plan for the future.”

Portsmouth Water said the measures in the plan would not increase customer bills beyond the rate of inflation, meaning bills would remain the lowest in the country. 

Click here to download the consultation paper