We urgently need your help!

We need your help, Southern Water are recycling more than final sewage effluent!

The good news is that after the great public response to Defra objecting to Southern Water’s last draft plan in 2023, which included Budds Farm effluent recycling via Havant Thicket Reservoir, the plan did get rejected, and they were told to think again.

 Sadly they have just recycled the same old leaky plan, with more effluent recycling, but this time they are also proposing to tanker water all the way from Norway to Southampton in a drought to plug the gap in their plan to 2035!

I know it’s unbelievable, even SW previously rejected tankering from Norway as a stupid idea (very expensive & environmentally unsound, with the risk of importing non-native species), but rather than look at more sustainable options that might undermine their case for recycling effluent that is their new plan.

Here are some scary facts;

• In the UK we only collect 1% of rainfall. We need a better plan that works with climate change to collect more water in the predicted wetter winters and to store it for use in drier summers, using underground confined aquifers and by building new reservoirs. Instead, Southern Water propose energy & carbon hungry effluent recycling. The plant will be located on an old landfill site on the coast at Broadmarsh (Havant), with piling and tunnelling putting Langstone Harbour at risk from leachate.  We need a radical rethink on where and how the company takes water from the environment, moving it’s abstraction points closer to the sea to leave freshwater in our precious chalk streams for longer.

• It is shocking that SW lose 100 million litres of water every day to leaks, that is 19% of all the water they abstract from the environment, which customers pay to treat, wasted through leakage in their distribution system.  Yet their slow programme for improvements means even by 2050 they will still be leaking about 10% of all the water they treat, including the new water manufactured at huge cost from their planned new effluent recycling schemes. Without a more ambitious leakage and mains replacement programme they will never get leakage under control.

This is a once in a generation opportunity to ensure the environment is put before profit and that sustainable solutions are selected & developed. Play your part, take action now.

The revised draft plan is out to consultation and Defra are the only ones that can stop the plan going ahead. If the plan goes through the need will be established nationally and there will be no stopping effluent recycling.

We need to you to email Defra today to object to Southern Water’s revised plan and demand a better more sustainable way forward by selecting options that work with climate change to store winter water  (not against it -their selected options are high energy & carbon hungry solutions) and to  do more to repair leaks and replace mains.

Please help us by emailing Defra before 4 December 2024 at water.resources@defra.gov.uk

 Important: please check & use the key concerns provided in the links below to support your response to Defra so that your clearly stated objection carries the necessary weight!

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 For more information to help you understand the concerns visit:   www.havantmatters.org

• Page giving information on a ‘better way forward’   https://havantmatters.org/water/future/

• Details of 40 key concerns with the SW plan  https://havantmatters.org/water/wrmp2024/

• Key concerns about effluent recycling   https://havantmatters.org/water/key-concerns/

• Frequently asked questions   https://havantmatters.org/water/faqs/

Urgently respond to the consultation before 4 December 2024

Write to DEFRA now to object to the draft plan and in a few paragraphs explain what concerns you most about SW’s plan & what your preferred alternatives.

Send your email to:  water.resources@defra.gov.uk

Title for email: Southern Water revised draft Water Resources Management Plan

More information on how to respond at    www.havantmatters.org/water/have-your-say

Send your email/ letter to your MP – https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

 Tell your family, friends, neighbours, social media groups and encourage them all to email DEFRA.

We can still make a difference if we all act now.