Isle of Wight River Basin Catchment

We have developed the first Drainage and Wastewater Management Plan (DWMP) for the Isle of Wight.

We have 20 wastewater systems in this catchment, with 168 pumping stations and 1,455 km of sewers. We cover 13% of the geographical area (mainly the urban areas and villages including Newport, Sandown, Shanklin, Yarmouth and Ventnor) with 95% of the homes in the catchment connected to our wastewater systems.

Our DWMP sets out our priorities for the Isle of Wight River Basin Catchment. These include:

• Reducing the number of spills from the 103 storm overflows which together currently spill around 2400 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 Sandown, Ryde, Cowes, Fairlee, Dodnor and Roud
• Investigating the impact of wastewater discharges on the Solent and Dorset Coasts and Isle of Wight lagoon
• Investigation of land stability issues in vulnerable urbanised coastal landslide complexes, including Ventnor and the north coast and the potential impact on local infrastructure
• Improving the resilience of our networks and treatment works to prevent pollution incidents, particularly in Ryde, Cowes, Sandown and Newport
• 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 Cowes, Sandown, and Newport.

All the stages we followed in developing the DWMP for the Isle of Wight 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 Isle of Wight Options Development and Appraisal page.