The reservoir would be filled with water from the River Thames in the winter, when there is plenty available.
When river levels drop, or demand for water increases, water would be released from the reservoir back into the river for re-abstraction downstream.
Our proposals are at an early stage and we’re planning, over the next couple of years, to carry out further public consultations and engagement, design and environmental assessments.
As well as providing a resilient water supply for the south east, the reservoir would also provide opportunities to create new habitats and increase biodiversity, as well as provide new leisure and recreation facilities.
The reservoir would provide water to customers in London and the Thames Valley as well as customers served by Affinity Water and Southern Water.
A new reservoir - the South East Strategic Reservoir Option (SESRO)
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Autumn 2023 update
Following a public consultation earlier this year on our draft Water Resources Management Plan (draft WRMP), which set out the actions and investment needed to make sure we’ll have a resilient and sustainable water supply for the next 50 years, we published our revised draft WRMP at the end of August.
The proposed new reservoir is a key part of this revised draft plan, along with targets to halve leakage by 2050 and install a further one million smart water meters in customers’ homes.
We’ve published a project update, which you can find here: View SESRO summary brochure.
We’re also holding several community information events in November at which you’ll be able to find out more about our proposals and talk to our team. Further details about these events, including how to register, can be found here.
Why do we need a new reservoir?
Our water resources are under pressure and we need to plan ahead to ensure we can continue to provide a secure water supply while protecting the environment. We’ve considered a wide range of options, including tackling leaks, making the best use of our water resources alongside developing new sources of water including water recycling, regional water transfers and reservoirs. Given the scale of the water resources shortfall, we’ll need a combination of demand reduction as well as new water sources.
Working with WRSE, the technical assessments and modelling have shown that a new reservoir will form an integral part of the adaptive plan for the south east.
In our draft WRMP we explained that the decision around the size of the reservoir was finely balanced between 100 Mm3 and 150 Mm3. We’ve taken into account feedback from regulators, stakeholders and our customers and completed further modelling work in collaboration with WRSE which have concluded that the larger, 150 Mm3, reservoir is needed.
It’s hard to predict what all our challenges might be over the reservoir’s expected life span (up to 250 years), but a larger reservoir provides a more resilient source of water, and so provides the ideal base of an adaptive plan for an uncertain future.
Developing our proposals
Our proposals for the new reservoir have been overseen by RAPID, a consortium of water industry regulators. RAPID have implemented a ‘gated’ regulatory process to make sure that all new strategic water supply options are considered in a fair and consistent way, with transparency, and that our customers’ money is spent wisely.
More information about RAPID and the gated process can be found here, where you will also find the technical reports, additional information provided to RAPID and feedback from RAPID relating to the project.
We’ll now develop our reservoir proposals and seek the necessary powers to build it. There will be opportunities for everyone to share their views to help shape the reservoir proposals.