Construction is about to begin on the UK’s first new reservoir for more than three decades – marking the start of a multi-billion-pound building spree designed to avert water shortages in the coming years.
If all goes according to plan, the £325m Havant Thicket reservoir in Hampshire will be up and running in 2031.
It will be the first since 1992, when Carsington Reservoir was built in Derbyshire, and will supply 21 million litres a day to people in and around the towns of Portsmouth and Havant.
“Ground was officially broken on the project last year and site preparation works are complete, ready for the start of the ‘big build’ phase of the project in spring 2025,” a Portsmouth Water spokesperson told The i Paper.
The Havant Thicket project is the most advanced of more than 10 new reservoirs proposed for the coming years.
There are fears parts of the country may face water rationing due to the lack of infrastructure. Last year, Environment Secretary Steve Reed said that within the next 15 years, “demand for clean drinking water will outstrip supply, leaving parts of the country facing water rationing unless things change”.
The reservoir projects are at various stages of development – being concrete proposals that are still at an early stage, requiring final planning approval and, in some cases, with the general area identified but the precise location yet to be determined.
Proposed projects include Anglia Water and Cambridge Water’s £5bn proposal for a reservoir in the fens, near the Cambridgeshire town of Chatteris, which would supply 87 million litres a day to 250,000 homes.
The £2.2bn Abingdon reservoir in Oxfordshire would supply up to 293 million litres a day across the South East.
“After 30-plus years without any new reservoirs it looks like the country is in for a building spree, with billions of pounds of projects at various stages in the planning process,” Ed Griffiths, chief analyst of Barbour ABI, which provides construction data to the government, told The i Paper.
“This would represent one of the biggest UK infrastructure pushes for decades and while there may be some local opposition, it will help manage precious water resources.”
Other sites at a much earlier stage are also under consideration. These include plans by Severn Trent to build a reservoir at a quarry site in the West Midlands, and a Southern Water scheme near the River Adur in Sussex.
At least some of the projects are expected to encounter opposition from locals arguing they would spoil the landscape and cause years of building disruption – although developers will say the projects are essential to maintain water supplies and will create hundreds of jobs.
The 4.5 square mile Abingdon site has already faced opposition after Government approval in September, with residents and councillors arguing the proposals could increase flooding in homes in surrounding villages and cause huge disruption.
Thames Water, the company behind the proposal, is due to submit a formal planning application next year. “Our proposed reservoir will be crucial in securing water supply for 15 million people across the South East,” Leonie Dubois, of Thames Water, told The i Paper.
While there is likely to be opposition to some projects, there is a growing recognition that without new reservoirs water rationing would be a very realistic prospect for some parts of the country in the not-too-distant future.
“Do we need to build new reservoirs? Absolutely,” Feargal Sharkey, the pop star turned water campaigner, told The i Paper. “If we do not build them, millions of people in London and the South East will have to be faced with water rationing. That’s the stark reality. We have no choice but to build them.
Citing a BBC analysis, he added. “London is now number nine on the list of global cities most likely to run out of drinking water. We’re now on a list with the likes of Cape Town, Jakarta, São Paulo and Mexico City.”Some water companies were reportedly considering importing water supplies from countries such as Norway due to drought concerns.
A report by the EU also stated the climate change crisis in 2022 killed 20,000 as well as bringing widespread droughts.
A similar report by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology said the UK will experience similar droughts in the coming years due to climate change.
As far back as 2018, the National Infrastructure Commission – which provides expert advice to the UK government on infrastructure challenges facing the UK — was warning “the risk of households having their supplies rationed because there is not enough water is significant”.
And in 2023 a landmark report by the same commission sounded the alarm.
“The projected gap between supply and demand is at least four billion litres per day by 2050. This is around 30 per cent of the water currently put into public supply,” it said.
“At least 1.3 billion litres per day from new infrastructure will be required by the mid-2030s”.
And the Environment Agency warned in December: “Some customers are already facing issues. In parts of Sussex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk, housing and business growth have been affected, as there already is not enough water. We also have concerns, following recent droughts, that some water companies’ supplies are not resilient enough.”
But there will be a high cost associated with the new reservoirs, which will add further to consumer water bills that are already increasing due to the expense of tackling the country’s sewage problem.
Ofwat, the water regulator, warned last month that households in England and Wales will pay £10 more on average on their monthly water bills from April, to help fund the cost of new infrastructure, such as reservoirs and sewage plants.
The rise will see the average annual bill hit £603, but there are significant variations between regions.
Meanwhile, water bills in Scotland will increase by almost 10 per cent from April.
Water UK, the trade body for water firms, has said the price increases would provide “much needed” investment for the sector.
Although there is broad agreement that the UK needs more reservoirs, academics such as Kevin Grecksch, of Oxford University, argue that there should also be “a stronger focus on reusing water and demanding less of it in the first place” if we are to avert significant water shortages further down the line.
Leonie Dubois, head of engagement, land and consents at Thames Water said: “A growing population and the impact of climate change means that water scarcity in the South East is a real threat. To continue delivering billions of litres of clean water and managing wastewater for millions of homes, we must invest in our network and infrastructure.
“Our proposed reservoir will be crucial in securing water supply for 15 million people across the South East, including Thames Water, Affinity Water and Southern Water customers for years to come.”
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