Portsmouth Water 'may lose all rights to water' held in Havant Thicket Reservoir
Community concerns rise as Portsmouth Water could lose rights to Havant Thicket Reservoir amid new Southern Water plans
A community campaign in Havant is encouraging people to give their opinions on the proposed Havant Thicket reservoir
A new Development Consent Order for the reservoir lodged by Southern Water, says that Southern will be guaranteed a minimum of 115 million litres of water a day from the reservoir. However, Portsmouth Water, the owners of the land the reservoir is being constructed, will only be able to access a maximum of 25 million litres a day.
As well as this limit on water usage, the order says Portsmouth Water’s rights to the water will not be protected, meaning that Southern Water could potentially stop all supply to Portsmouth Water customers.
Tracey Viney is a former Portsmouth Water employee who had helped to set up the reservoir project as part of her role. Since leaving her job, she has been at the forefront of Water Matters, a campaign to make local residents aware of the reservoir plans.
She said: “I think it will have been a bit of a shock to them, certainly within the core Portsmouth Water Company when the DCO came out and it basically gives provisions for a restriction in Portsmouth Water's use of the reservoir for extraction, effectively removing its flexibility for the future and also potentially giving Southern Water the ability to take control of the reservoir away from Portsmouth Water.”
Portsmouth Water proposed to build Havant Thicket Reservoir, the first ever chalk spring reservoir in the world, on land it owns near Leigh Park, in 2018. It would supply water to both Portsmouth Water and Southern Water customers.
Plans were approved by Havant Borough Council in June 2021 and the reservoir is already being built.
The DCO plans submitted in June show that Southern Water wants to use the reservoir to store and blend recycled sewage effluent, and supply it to Portsmouth Water and Southern Water customers. This sewage recycling plan has already come up against local opposition, including from Havant MP Alan Mak and the borough council.
Water Matters has researched the proposals surrounding the reservoir, including the introduction of the plans to store recycled effluent.
“We took it upon ourselves to try and put some information in the public domain, which we felt would be helpful to people in terms of understanding the issues and potential impacts and to encourage them to actually respond to the consultations,” said Tracey.
Recycling effluent is a process where sewage is put through advanced chemical treatment so it can be reused as drinking water, rather than being discharged into the sea or a river.
The group see this repurposing as a serious threat to a project they say residents and the local council already approved for a different purpose, and say that the use of recycled effluent may damage local ecologies and result in the build up of harmful chemicals in the reservoir.
Tracey said: “The treatment process takes out about 92 to 98 per cent of the nasty chemicals. Well that sounds really good, but that means that between two per cent and eight per cent of those nasty chemicals still get through. And they're going to be going into the reservoir every day of the year and there's nothing to flush them through.”
In 2022 Councillor Alex Rennie, the then leader of Havant Borough Council, said: “Havant Borough Council has serious concerns about Southern Water’s Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project and further information is needed in order to understand why water recycling is needed for the Havant Thicket Reservoir, as opposed to natural sources for filling the reservoir.”
Havant Matters fears that the build up of these chemicals will harm local animal and plant populations. “We think this whole thing hasn't been looked at properly,” said Tracey.
“When I was Havant Thicket Reservoir project manager, it was a big selling point to the public that here we were creating this sort of unique biodiversity habitat. And now that opportunity is being taken away, because if you put this recycled effluent into it, Southern Water have already said they won't remineralise it to the same standard as the chalk spring water,” said Tracey.
“That's really, really disappointing from our perspective that that opportunity is being lost.”
Water Matters also contend that Southern Water did not go through proper consultation methods when introducing effluent recycling into the plans for the reservoir, and have said the water companies decided to introduce effluent recycling “without any further consultation or any further deliberation of options”.
They did not have any public consultation on the new plan, meaning residents could not share their opinions.
“If you go and stand in a street with a few leaflets about a public consultation and people ask you what it's about and you explain to them, they're horrified that their water providers haven't actually written to them and told them about this and told them about the consultations,” Tracey said.
A spokesperson for Southern Water said: “We have held several public consultations on the project:
- In 2021: Consultation covering alternative water resource schemes (including initial recycling and desalination concepts).
- In the Summer of 2022: Non-statutory public consultation on water recycling proposals linked to the reservoir.
- From May to July 2024: Statutory public consultation regarding the Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project.
- In Spring 2025: Follow-up public consultation phase regarding ongoing environmental and water quality updates for the recycling project.”
Portsmouth Water’s spokesperson said: "Under the current approved plans for Havant Thicket Reservoir, Portsmouth Water will use up to 21 million litres of water a day from the reservoir to supply customers in our area during periods of drought. This will allow an equivalent amount of water from our existing sources to be made available further west for Southern Water customers.
“The reservoir will be owned and operated by Portsmouth Water and we will have full control of the water entering and leaving it. We are currently reviewing the Development Consent Order (DCO) application for the Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project and will submit any comments or representations through the formal planning process."
“Portsmouth Water has consistently shared information about [Southern Water] consultations with its dedicated Havant Thicket Reservoir Stakeholder Group. This is made up of over 70 representatives from organisations, including community groups, local councillors and schools, with an interest in the Havant Thicket Reservoir project.”
All representations must be submitted in time for the Development Consent Order deadline on Monday, August 24, so that all opinions can be considered in planning permission discussions.
Water Matters are encouraging residents to look through their research and their response to the planning applications and, if they feel so inclined, to register their name to support the Water Matters response. More information about this can be found here.
For more details about the project visit Havant Thicket Reservoir project and for Water Recycling project visit Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project - Project information.