Southern Water has received backing by the government to reduce storm overflows following an extra £10m investment.

Southern Water has been given the green light to increase its investment in driving down the use of storm overflows after a short-term £10m boost was ratified by Defra.

The agreement will aim to help the Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force to further expand its work in rolling out nature-based and engineering solutions so that sewers are no longer overloaded by surface and groundwater, leading to storm overflows. The multi-million pound investment will be spent between now and spring of 2025 and it will go towards an expansion of optimisation activity as well a real-time digital wastewater catchment control. The money will also go towards an additional surface water pathfinder catchment, an additional programme of ground water infiltration reduction of both customer\private and public sewers and an accelerated construction programme for wetland(s) benefiting Chichester Harbour.

Southern Water’s Environment and Innovation Director, Nick Mills, said: “This additional funding will help us expand and accelerate our programme of work reducing the reliance on storm overflows.

“It is really important that the Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force continues to ramp up its delivery of sustainable catchment solutions that make a real difference to communities and the environment.”

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