A giant countdown clock is on display in Southern Water’s Operational Control Centre – ticking down the days until the start of the Environment Agency’s bathing water season.

In the run-up to the start of the season the water company is carrying out extra health checks on 255 of its pumping stations and other infrastructure critical to water quality – making sure they are in the best possible shape.

The utility said that regular maintenance is part and parcel of running its wastewater network with 49,000km of pipes, more than 3,000 pumping stations and 367 wastewater treatment plants.

At one pumping station visit, worn mechanical parts in the shape of impellors and gaskets were found indicating the site had been dealing with unusual amounts of ‘unflushable’ items, enabling the utility to fix the issue before it could get worse.

The same teams have been carrying out thousands of metres of CCTV surveys of networks to check for leaks and other problems.

However, having an in-depth look at key sites is critical “to avoid nasty surprises long before they rear their head,” Southern Water explained.

From Thursday 15 May the Agency will start collecting and testing samples from designated bathing waters across the country – including the water company’s own 87 locations, dotted along the region’s 700 miles of coast.

Over the next five years of the AMP8 investment period the water company will spend £1 billion a year on environmental improvements.

By working in partnership with the EA, councils, landowners, NGOs and other stakeholders, Southern Water said it can ensure the investment makes an enormous difference by taking a holistic approach to challenges when they arise.

Southern Water’s Bathing Water Lead Rob Butson commented:

“The public understand that as well as impact from storm overflows, there are many factors which influence bathing water – road and agricultural run-off, wildlife, and beach users to name a few.

“But we cannot ask our partners to undertake work to protect and improve water quality unless we can show we’re doing all we can from our side.”

Southern Water has updated its near real-time storm overflow monitoring service, Rivers and Seas Watch, to keep water users across the south informed about storm overflow impact to water quality.

Covering every single one of over 1,000 storm overflow outfalls in the region, the service is relied on by water users, community groups and campaign groups such as Surfers Against Sewage, who use the data for their own storm overflow service.

The latest upgrade introduces improvements based on expert suggestions, including an upgrade to Southern Water’s tidal modelling process to enhance technical accuracy and enable it to pinpoint accurately the area that may be affected by a release.

Luke Hyttner, Product Owner of Rivers and Seas Watch said:

We’re delighted to be releasing this significant upgrade to the Rivers and Seas Watch service. Our community have told us that providing accurate information about the impact of storm overflows on our region’s bathing waters is a high priority for them. We've worked extensively with relevant experts and put a lot of time into developing an accurate and reliable service that provides value for our community.