A total of £260 million will be spent in the next financial year on schemes that will safeguard and improve water and sewerage services, including completion of our vast new water supply grid.   

As part of the grid project, we’re building a 200km (124 miles) water supply pipe from the south of our region in Dorset to Salisbury in Wiltshire, via Blandford and Shaftesbury.  This is the largest scheme ever undertaken by the company and provides important new infrastructure for the South West region with connections to Bournemouth Water, Bristol Water and South West Water via Exmoor’s Wimbleball reservoir.  Drummond Modley, grid programme manager, said: “The water supply grid will ensure we can meet our customer demands for the next 25 years.  “It will provide security of supply through its ability to redistribute surplus water to areas in deficit within our region, and it will also allow blending of sources to maintain water quality.”  The grid comprises more than 50 individual projects and work has been carried out in a sustainable manner to preserve and enhance the sensitive environments in which it is located.

One of the key innovations of the project is The Optimiser, digital technology which manages the flow of water through the grid. Centrally controlling and monitoring the transfer of water along a new 74km trunk main, it is a first for the UK.  As well as the grid, we’re investing around £15 million in a new sewer to cater for ongoing and future development in North Bristol and South Gloucestershire.  Once built, the sewer will divert waste water flows to Bristol water recycling centre in Avonmouth via a route around the north of the city rather than alongside the River Frome.

Overall we have set aside £74 million for improving and maintaining our water treatment works and water recycling centres in 2018/19.  A further £33 million will be spent on environmental protection and improvement projects across the region.  Click here to access