Southern Water is inviting people in Hampshire to give feedback on the updated plans for the Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project.

The project will create a new source of water to help supply more than 700,000 homes and businesses in the county. It will mean less water needs to be taken from the precious chalk streams of the rivers Test and Itchen, especially during a drought, protecting these rare and sensitive ecosystems.

The proposed water recycling plant will take treated wastewater from the Budds Farm Wastewater Treatment Works (pictured) and turn it into purified recycled water using advanced treatment techniques.

Up to 60 million litres a day of purified recycled water would then be pumped into Havant Thicket Reservoir to be stored. Water taken from the reservoir would be treated to strict drinking water standards before being sent into supply. The reservoir is being built by Portsmouth Water and funded over time by our water supply customer bills.

A public consultation on the Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project was held last summer. Southern Water explained at the time that further extensive water quality modelling would be undertaken and consulted on.

The data from that modelling is now available - the water company is now seeking people’s views on it, along with a few proposed design refinements, many of which have been made in response to public feedback at last summer’s consultation.

The supplementary consultation will be online-only and runs for four weeks from now until 4 April 2025 at www.hampshirewtwrp.co.uk

The feedback will help shape the development of the project, before Southern Water submits a planning application later this year.