Southern Water has created a £5 million Environment Improvement Fund (EIF) that is delivering projects to protect the natural environment in Kent, West Sussex and Hampshire. Over the next three years these projects will enhance wetlands and healthy soils to sustain clean water, reduce floods, capture carbon and provide wildlife habitat.
The Environment Improvement Fund (EIF) is a privately funded programme, which is not drawn from customer bills.
The first phase of the EIF programme focuses on West Sussex and Kent where we have started a series of ambitious projects:
- We are working in partnership with the Rivers Trust, Wildlife Trust and local landowners in the Western Rother, West Sussex, to create an ambitious river restoration plan. This will support biodiversity conservation, improve the amount of usable water in our region and better prepare our rivers for flooding.
- In the River Beult, Kent, we are working in partnership with the Rivers Trust, Wildlife Trusts, and farmers to identify areas where the water environment needs to be protected and restored to ensure it has capacity to withstand floods, drought and impacts from population growth and climate change. We are now working to design a range of solutions with farmers and land mangers including stream and wetland restoration and soil health improvements.
- As part of our Save our Harbours initiative we are working on a range of fast-track projects to deliver improvements over the next three years around Chichester, Pagham and Langstone Harbour. This includes investing in farming incentives to help improve water quality in the harbours. We are also financing project grants for land managers and community groups to deliver habitat enhancements, public access facilities and water quality improvements. Chichester, Langstone and Pagham Harbours are recognised internationally for their wildlife, and we are committed to playing our part to restore and enhance this irreplaceable asset.
Our partnerships with local communities, businesses and organisations are crucial to delivering long-lasting environmental improvement in our area.
Tom Ormesher, Catchment Delivery Manager, Southern Water:
“The Environment Improvement Fund is delivering Nature Based Solutions to help our region prepare for the long-term impacts from population growth and climate change.
“Our customers rightly expect and demand we protect our local environment and so we are focused on engaging with farmers, local authorities, and community groups to provide solutions.
“The EIF has the potential to be a gamechanger in providing us with the platform and resources to deepen our network of partnerships in the local area and accelerate the improvements we want to make.”
Our funding of the EIF sits alongside a record year for investment with Southern Water spending its largest amount; £610 million, to focus on the improvements that matter most to our customers. These include driving down leakage and pollution, improving our infrastructure, protecting the environment, and preparing for the challenges of climate change.
Notes to editors
Pollution targets
Southern Water is working towards an 80 per cent reduction on two industry leading pollution targets. It aims to cut all pollution incidents by 80 per cent by 2025 from its pipeline network and treatment works. This includes sewer flooding caused by blockages and pollution from burst pipes. It is also committed to cutting storm overflows by 80 per cent by 2030.
Storm overflow task force
Much of Britain’s water system is comprised of a single pipe “combined sewer” network which collects and conveys both foul and surface water. This means that when there is heavy rainfall the increase in the volumes of water in the network can overwhelm the capacity of the pipeline and treatment plants. When this happens water companies are legally allowed to release water via overflows, known as Combined Sewer Overflows, into the sea or rivers in order to protect homes from flooding. Around 95 per cent of this water is surface or rainwater, but around 5 per cent can be a combination of treated or untreated sewage.
Southern Water believes this practice is no longer acceptable and needs to be addressed. It has therefore set up a Task Force with the aim of reducing the number of storm overflow discharges by 80 per cent by 2030. It believes that with climate change and population growth only likely to increase pressure on the sewage system, innovative solutions and approaches are needed to deliver to reduce overflows and create a more resilient system.
As a first step the force has launched pathfinder projects across the South East ranging from Deal, Margate, to Swalecliffe and Sandown. These will test a range of nature-based solutions such as ponds, wetlands and rain gardens to reduce the amount of surface water that enters the sewers during a storm. Nature based solutions also reduce carbon emissions as water treatment is a carbon intensive activity and is responsible for 72 per cent of Southern Water’s energy consumption.
Investment plans
Between 2020-25 Southern Water is investing over £2 billion across the region driving innovation and partnerships through working with partners in the community. £1.5 billion of this is for investment in improving wastewater services, which is being used to upgrade Southern Water’s ability to process greater volumes of sewage and the capacity to store more storm water. This is in addition to the nature-based approach to reduce storm overflows. A further £700 million is being invested in continuing to deliver reliable supplies of clean drinking water. This includes routine maintenance and improvement work as well as fixing leaks. This includes an additional £230 million of investment, over and above the allowance set by the industry regulator Ofwat.