These range from traditional techniques to more innovative approaches and include recycling water, transferring water from other regions and building a large storage reservoir. We've assessed every option for cost; water output; the time to deliver the scheme and make the water available; potential impact on the environment; carbon budget; and ability to cope with a changing future.
Thinking nationally and regionally
The scale of the water resources we need for the future means we need to take a strategic approach to planning our future water supply. We've been working closely with other water companies to look at options that could provide a large volume of water (more than 50 million litres of water a day) for more than one water company to use. These options are called strategic resource options (SROs). We've worked collaboratively to explore 5 out of 18 proposed SROs that are under investigation across the UK. All these options have been considered in the Water Resources South East (WRSE) regional plan.
The development of these nationally significant schemes is being overseen by the Regulators' Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID), an alliance of regulators formed to help accelerate the development of new water infrastructure. For further information and documents, please click here.
If an SRO is approved in our Water Resources Management Plan 2024, it will go through the full planning process, which will include more detailed work on the scheme design, assessments of the environmental impact as well as consultation. We’ll engage fully with local communities throughout this work.
Summary of new sources
Here's a summary of the new sources of water that we have proposed in our revised draft WRMP24 in the Thames Water area. Some of these sources will not only provide water to our customers but also across the wider South East. Sharing water resources is efficient and effective and supported by our customers.
