Adur and Ouse River Basin Catchment

We have developed the first Drainage and Wastewater Management Plan (DWMP) for the Adur and Ouse River Basin Catchment.

We have 68 wastewater systems in this catchment, with over 354 pumping stations and over 4, 881 km of sewers. We cover 13% of the geographical area (mainly the urban areas and villages including Brighton, Worthing, Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, and Lewes) with 96% of the homes in the catchment connected to our wastewater systems.

Our DWMP sets out our priorities for the Adur and Ouse River Basin Catchment. These include:

• Reducing the number of spills from the 112 storm overflows which together currently spill around 2600 times per annum
• Separating or attenuating excess rainwater in the sewer networks to reduce the risks of flooding and frequency of storm overflow discharges, especially in Lewes, Ashington, Ditchling, Lindfield, Shoreham and Barcombe
• Planning for potential significant developments at Burgess Hill, Brighton Marina and West Grinstead
• Improving the resilience of our networks and treatment works to prevent pollution incidents, particularly in Lewes, Newhaven and Brighton (Portobello)
• Reducing the risk of sewer blockages by increasing sewer jetting and targeting customer campaigns to reduce the amount of FOG (fats, oils and grease) and unflushables in the sewer network around The Lanes in Brighton and Church Road, Portslade
• Investigating the potential opportunity to designate the River Ouse at Barcombe Mills as an inland bathing water.

All the stages we followed in developing the DWMP for the Adur and Ouse are set out in the subsections below. Please explore these pages to find out more. You can find detailed investment needs in the tables on the Adur and Ouse Options Development and Appraisal page.