Dear Grapevine Reader
This is a once in a generation opportunity to ensure the environment is put before profit and that sustainable solutions are selected and developed. Play your part, take action now. The good news is that after the great public response to DEFRA objecting to Southern Water’s (SW) last draft Water Resources Management Plan in 2023, which included Budds Farm effluent recycling via Havant Thicket Reservoir, the Plan did get rejected, and SW were told to think again. Sadly SW has now 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! Even SW previously rejected tankering from Norway as a stupid idea (very expensive and 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 they have effectively recycled their old Plan giving lots of reasons why the better options cannot be developed quickly enough and the effluent recycling scheme still remains their best option. 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, SW proposes energy and chemical hungry effluent recycling from which it and its owners will be able to profit very considerably over many years from both construction and operation. The recycling 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 and the recycled water will be pumped up to Havant Thicket Reservoir and then 40kms to Otterbourne. The current building costs are £1.2billion and spiralling. We need a radical rethink on where and how the company takes water from the environment, for example moving its 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 SW’s slow programme for improvements means even by 2050 SW will still be leaking about 10% of all the water it treats, including the new water manufactured at huge cost from their planned new effluent recycling schemes. Without a more ambitious leakage and mains replacement programme SW will never get leakage under control. * An industry leakage expert tells us if SW put the funding and priority in, SW should be striving to achieve a 70 % reduction in leakage by 2050 (not the 53% target in its plan). * In West Sussex, SW has not taken action to connect up its network and as a result SW is dismissing options because it can’t get the water to where it is needed. Why is SW not connecting up the network? It is because they want to get the recycling schemes underway first. The revised draft Plan is out to consultation and DEFRA is the only organisation that can stop the plan going ahead. If the Plan goes through, the use of very expensive effluent recycling schemes will effectively have been approved and SW will be able to carry on and build these schemes at great cost to its customers and the environment. You should also note that there is the potential for Portsmouth Water to be amalgamated with Southern Water as there is linkage at the top ownership level. If that did happen Portsmouth Water customers would also be hit by high bills because the cost of building and operating the scheme would be shared across both companies. We need you to email DEFRA to object to SW’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. SW’s selected best options are high energy, carbon and chemical hungry solutions. SW needs to do more to repair leaks, replace mains, encourage demand reduction from households and non-household users and develop reservoirs and aquifer storage. Please help us by emailing or writing to DEFRA to object to SW’s draft Plan before the Consultation deadline of 4 December 2024. The Parish Council is also developing a detailed letter calling on DEFRA to reject the revised Plan but we are one voice, and we need many more to drive the points home. Email: water.resources@defra.gov.uk and copy in our local MP, Damian Hinds on Subject: Southern Water revised draft Water Resources Management Plan Content: In a few paragraphs explain what concerns you most about SW’s plan and what your preferred alternatives. There is more information on how to respond at www.havantmatters.org/water/have-your-say<www.havantmatters.org/water/have-your-say>
If you can do anything to help us spread the word to encourage others to look at the community website and email DEFRA it would be much appreciated. Thank you For more information to help you understand the concerns visit: www.havantmatters.org<www.havantmatters.org> * Page giving information on a ‘better way forward’ havantmatters.org/water/future/ * Details of 40 key concerns with the SW plan havantmatters.org/water/wrmp2024/ * Key concerns about effluent recycling havantmatters.org/water/key-concerns/ * Frequently asked questions havantmatters.org/water/faqs/
We can still make a difference if we all act now.
Lisa Walker – Clerk to Rowlands Castle Parish Council 11 The Green, Rowlands Castle PO9 6BW Tel: 02392 413044 www.rowlandscastlepc.org.uk<www.rowlandscastlepc.org.uk>
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To unsubscribe from the Grapevine please send an email with a blank subject to info-unsubscribe@rowlandscastle.com Thank you. Grapevine moderator.
This is a once in a generation opportunity to ensure the environment is put before profit and that sustainable solutions are selected and developed. Play your part, take action now. The good news is that after the great public response to DEFRA objecting to Southern Water’s (SW) last draft Water Resources Management Plan in 2023, which included Budds Farm effluent recycling via Havant Thicket Reservoir, the Plan did get rejected, and SW were told to think again. Sadly SW has now 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! Even SW previously rejected tankering from Norway as a stupid idea (very expensive and 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 they have effectively recycled their old Plan giving lots of reasons why the better options cannot be developed quickly enough and the effluent recycling scheme still remains their best option. 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, SW proposes energy and chemical hungry effluent recycling from which it and its owners will be able to profit very considerably over many years from both construction and operation. The recycling 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 and the recycled water will be pumped up to Havant Thicket Reservoir and then 40kms to Otterbourne. The current building costs are £1.2billion and spiralling. We need a radical rethink on where and how the company takes water from the environment, for example moving its 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 SW’s slow programme for improvements means even by 2050 SW will still be leaking about 10% of all the water it treats, including the new water manufactured at huge cost from their planned new effluent recycling schemes. Without a more ambitious leakage and mains replacement programme SW will never get leakage under control. * An industry leakage expert tells us if SW put the funding and priority in, SW should be striving to achieve a 70 % reduction in leakage by 2050 (not the 53% target in its plan). * In West Sussex, SW has not taken action to connect up its network and as a result SW is dismissing options because it can’t get the water to where it is needed. Why is SW not connecting up the network? It is because they want to get the recycling schemes underway first. The revised draft Plan is out to consultation and DEFRA is the only organisation that can stop the plan going ahead. If the Plan goes through, the use of very expensive effluent recycling schemes will effectively have been approved and SW will be able to carry on and build these schemes at great cost to its customers and the environment. You should also note that there is the potential for Portsmouth Water to be amalgamated with Southern Water as there is linkage at the top ownership level. If that did happen Portsmouth Water customers would also be hit by high bills because the cost of building and operating the scheme would be shared across both companies. We need you to email DEFRA to object to SW’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. SW’s selected best options are high energy, carbon and chemical hungry solutions. SW needs to do more to repair leaks, replace mains, encourage demand reduction from households and non-household users and develop reservoirs and aquifer storage. Please help us by emailing or writing to DEFRA to object to SW’s draft Plan before the Consultation deadline of 4 December 2024. The Parish Council is also developing a detailed letter calling on DEFRA to reject the revised Plan but we are one voice, and we need many more to drive the points home. Email: water.resources@defra.gov.uk and copy in our local MP, Damian Hinds on Subject: Southern Water revised draft Water Resources Management Plan Content: In a few paragraphs explain what concerns you most about SW’s plan and what your preferred alternatives. There is more information on how to respond at www.havantmatters.org/water/have-your-say<www.havantmatters.org/water/have-your-say>
If you can do anything to help us spread the word to encourage others to look at the community website and email DEFRA it would be much appreciated. Thank you For more information to help you understand the concerns visit: www.havantmatters.org<www.havantmatters.org> * Page giving information on a ‘better way forward’ havantmatters.org/water/future/ * Details of 40 key concerns with the SW plan havantmatters.org/water/wrmp2024/ * Key concerns about effluent recycling havantmatters.org/water/key-concerns/ * Frequently asked questions havantmatters.org/water/faqs/
We can still make a difference if we all act now.
Lisa Walker – Clerk to Rowlands Castle Parish Council 11 The Green, Rowlands Castle PO9 6BW Tel: 02392 413044 www.rowlandscastlepc.org.uk<www.rowlandscastlepc.org.uk>
_______________________________________________ Grapevine mailing list: info@rowlandscastle.com
The Grapevine email system is operated by the ‘Rowlands Castle Association’.
Please do not reply to this email. If you are interested in the subject please use the contact details within the Grapevine message.
To unsubscribe from the Grapevine please send an email with a blank subject to info-unsubscribe@rowlandscastle.com Thank you. Grapevine moderator.