Southern Water wants us to drink recycled sewage water
Wilf Forrow and Philippa Gray have been working hard with local campaign groups to build a case against Southern Water’s plans to send their treated sewage water from Water Treatment sites across our area to the Reservoir being built by Portsmouth Water
Local Lib Dem champions, Wilf Forrow and Philippa Gray, have been working hard with local campaign groups to fight Southern Water’s plan to recycle treated sewage from Water Treatment sites in our region into the new Havant Thicket Reservoir and then into all our drinking water.
Southern Water say this is the only option to keep the taps running, but we have uncovered deeply buried evidence that they’ve deliberately suppressed greener and cheaper options which would be less profitable for them. These include storing our excess winter water in underground aquifers.
We are calling upon Defra to delay Southern Water’s plan until they’ve properly explored the other cheaper, greener solutions, because of:
- Huge environmental concerns
- Totally inadequate consultation
- A complete breakdown of public trust in Southern Water
- The risk of driving customers towards bottled water, with further huge environmental impact
The raw sewage will be treated and recycled in a new processing plant to be built at Broadmarsh, on top of a former tip. It will then be sent to Havant Thicket Reservoir, for drinking by both Portsmouth Water and Southern Water customers. We were originally told that this reservoir would only be filled with local chalk-filtered Spring water, for drinking by both Portsmouth and Southern Water customers.
None of these plans will alleviate the release of raw sewage from Budds Farm into Langstone Harbour.
#savehavantthicketreservoir
Stop Plans for Drinking Southern Waters Recycled Sewage
Join Wilf Forrow, Philippa Gray and campaigners from across Havant in our call to ask Defra to stop plans for Southern Water to put the recycled effluent in Havant Thicket Reservoir.
How else can you help?
- Write to your MP
- Ask Southern and Portsmouth Water for stronger action to improve leaks and promote alternative ways to save water
- Share this petition
- Spread the word #savehavantthicketreservoir
Useful links
New Civil Engineer - Plan to transfer treated wastewater into new Portsmouth reservoir questioned
The Guardian - ‘Recycling’ plan aims to replace water from Thames with treated sewage
The News - Havant Thicket reservoir: Anger over Southern Water 'not making wastewater recycling plan clear'
BBC South News - Conservationists slam Southern Water Fawley desalination plan
BBC South News - Southern Water: Four-day water shutdown unacceptable
More information can be found at Havantmatters.org/water