Portsmouth Water helps Southern tackle abstraction shortfall

Portsmouth Water has agreed a long-term deal to transfer 15 million litres of water a day to help supply Southern Water customers in Southampton, Hampshire.

The volume supplied as part of the agreement will be transferred from Portsmouth Water’s River Itchen Treatment Works and is enough to supply 100,000 customers each day.

Southern Water is currently dealing with restrictions on the volumes of water it is permitted to abstract from the rivers Test and Itchen. The company plans to invest £800 million over the next decade to help tackle the shortfall.

Portsmouth Water’s River Itchen abstraction is situated on the lower tidal reaches of the Itchen. From an environmental perspective, it is considered to be preferable to take water at this location rather than further upstream.

The volumes supplied under the new agreement are within the terms of Portsmouth Water’s existing abstraction license.

“We are very pleased to be able to expand our emerging role of being a water supplier to the wider south east region,” said Portsmouth Water chief executive, Bob Taylor.

“This was proposed in our last Water Resources Management Plan and we are pleased that the pumping station is in place to support this summer’s peak demand period.

“This supply is in addition to an existing bulk supply we have provided to Southern Water since 2004 into their Sussex area.”

Ian McAulay, Southern Water chief executive, added: “We’re delighted to be working with Portsmouth Water to help address the shortfall we’ll experience as a result of being able to extract less water from the rivers Test and Itchen.

“We’re committed to providing our customers with the best possible service while protecting the natural environment around us and so we’re investing £800 million over the next decade and £2.4 million in the coming year in tackling leakage to ensure we continue to do this.”