UK water company South East Water is to develop two water reuse schemes as part of its bid to ensure supply meets demand to 2040.
The first scheme, which will be explored jointly with neighbouring water firm Southern Water, will take the tertiary treated water from the Aylesford wastewater treatment works in Kent and treat it for potable supply. It will use existing treatment facilities but though the company notes there was a possibility further reverse osmosis treatment will also be required. The scheme should yield 12.5 million litres a day (Ml/d).
The second scheme will take effluent from Southern Water’s state-of-the-art Peacehaven wastewater works in Sussex for further treatment to yield 25 Ml/d.
The reuse projects form part of South East Water’s Water Resource Management Plan, designed to ensure supply and demand are balanced between 2015 and 2040 and signed off by the UK government this week.
The plan combines demand management with resource enhancement. On the demand management side, a customer metering programme will mean at least 90% of South East Water customers are on a meter by 2020, saving 25 Ml/d. There will also be further leakage control and water efficiency measures that deliver 6 Ml/d.
Aside from the water reuse schemes, key features on the resource enhancement side include:
· Developing five groundwater sources at: Forest Row, Coggins Mill and Cowbeech in East Sussex, Maytham Farm in Kent and Boxall’s Lane (Aldershot) in Hampshire
· Developing six water transfer schemes to share water with Thames Water, Southern Water, Sutton and East Surrey Water, Portsmouth Water and Affinity Water
· Developing and improving two existing water treatment works
· Building a new reservoir at Broad Oak, Kent
· Increasing the capacity of our existing Arlington Reservoir, East Sussex
Without action, South East Water calculates demand will exceed supply on the back of 19% population growth (to 2.5 million) by 2040 and reduced water availability.
David Hinton, asset and regulation director for South East Water, said: “This plan sets out what we will need to do, where and by when, to meet the future need for water from people, businesses and also the environment.
“We asked for our customers’ views on these proposals during a 12 week public consultation when there was overwhelming support for our proposals.”