THAMES Water has laid out a revised draft of its Water Resources Management Plan, which will govern how it delivers “secure and sustainable” water, including in Reading.
Following a public consultation between December last year and March this year, Thames Water has published its statement of response and updated the plan.
It comes as the provider continues to face scrutiny on levels of waste water in public waterways, and just weeks after emergency talks were launched in the wake of the resignation of CEO, Sarah Bentley.
Thames Water is also facing £14 billion in debt, and a report in the Daily Telegraph in June said that the firm was seeking to raise £1 billion from its shareholders and receiving consultation from AlixPartners.
The 50-year plans include proposals to find and fix leaks, with the company committing to more than halving leakage from both its pipes and customers’ pipes by 2050.
They have also laid out commitments to reducing daily water use to 110 litres per person by 2050, with current water use in the area at around 140 litres per person, though it has described this aim as “very challenging.”
Proposals also include a new river abstraction on the River Thames close to Teddington Weir, due to be completed in 2033, to combat drought and supported by water recycling.
There is to be a new reservoir in Oxfordshire, dubbed the South East Strategic Reservoir Option (SESRO), with a completion date of 2040.
Plans for the reservoir have been upscaled, increasing the proposed size of the reservoir from 100 million cubic metres to 150 millions cubic metres.
This, they say, will ensure the continued and resilient provision of sustainable water.
Thames Water forecasts that it will need an additional 1 billion litres of water every day, enough to fill approximately 400 Olympic sized swimming pools, for its customers by 2075, in order to combat a predicted drinking water shortfall of 2.8 billion litres a day.
Leakage, water demand reduction, and temporary drought measures will make up around 80% of the forecast shortfall in water supply.
It has also stated that customer funding will be required to deliver the plan.
Nevil Muncaster, Strategic Resources Director at Thames Water, said: “The scale of the water resource challenge means we must make bold decisions and act now to ensure we have the water we need for generations to come.
“Given this, we must find ways to adapt to our changing climate, supply water to more people as our population grows, and reduce the amount of water we take from our rivers and chalk streams to protect the environment.
“Investing in and building new infrastructure is integral to the plan and we’re calling on the government to support ambitious projects, including a new reservoir in Oxfordshire and a river abstraction and water recycling scheme in West London.”
Lee Dance, Organisational Director at Water Resources South East, said: “Our revised regional plan has been shaped by feedback from the public and sets out the investment needed to meet the predicted water shortfall across the South East.
“Delivery of the plan is essential to address the impact of climate change and population growth while making water supplies more resilient to drought and enabling morewater to be left in the region’s rivers and streams.”
