Anglian Water and Cambridge Water to consult on plans for two new reservoirs supplying 750,000 homes

Anglian Water expects to spend between £2bn and £4bn creating two new reservoirs to serve the region.

One of them will be a joint project with Cambridge Water and will lie in the Fens, either east or west of the Ouse Washes near the border of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk and will supply 100 million litres of water a day. The other will be located in Lincolnshire, supplying 160 million litres daily.

The plans have been in the pipeline for 10 years already, and Anglian Water hopes to start building the reservoirs by 2030 so that they can supply water for at least 750,000 homes by by the mid to late 2030s.

And they could take the form of ‘water parks’, providing opportunities for sailing, cycling and fishing, with visitor centres running educational programmes and areas dedicated to wildlife and managed as nature reserves, as found at other reservoirs.

Findings of a detailed site selection study are due to be published by the water companies in the autumn as a 10-week consultation - the first of three phases - gets under way. Landowners and residents affected by the plans will be contacted directly.

The reservoirs, expected to cost between £1bn and £2bn each, will reduce the amount of water that the water companies take from rivers and underground aquifers in the region to supply homes and businesses.

There is mounting concern over abstraction and the health of our rivers with the region officially in drought amid the driest eight-month period since 1976 as the impact of climate change becomes ever clearer.

The East of England received only a fifth of its average rainfall in July.

Alex Plant, director of strategy and regulation for Anglian Water, said: “It’s plain to see when you look out the window right now just how precious water is. It’s the lifeblood of the region for our customers, businesses, agriculture and nature.

“The current situation presents an obvious backdrop as to why projects like this are needed, but the reality is because we’ve known the future promises many more people, but far fewer raindrops, we have been working on these projects for years, as we know how long they take to come to fruition.

“Getting these projects under way now means the chances of our taps running dry are significantly reduced, as well as helping us take a big step forward in protecting the environment by reducing how much we take from elsewhere in the region.”

Anglian Water said the reservoirs are two of the 18 strategic water resources projects it Water is developing with regulators. It is also building a 400km strategic pipeline to move water from the wetter north to the south and east of the region.

“The reality is stark for the East of England,” warned Mr Plant. “We operate in the driest part of the country and receive a third less rainfall than anywhere else in the UK, but we’re also one of the fastest growing regions, with 175,000 new homes to be built in the next five years. Without action we will face a water deficit of millions of litres a day within the next five years – let alone 25 years.

“Right now, we’re already working on new strategic pipelines to move water from wetter to drier parts of our region, installing over a million smart meters in customers’ homes to help them better understand their water use, and driving down leakage to world leading low levels – last year alone delivering five years' worth of leakage reduction in a single year. These reservoirs will build on these demand reduction measures, and will play a critical role in securing water supply long into the future.

“But we should be clear – while all of these projects cumulatively will help to keep taps running, they are necessary because the demand for water will greatly outstrip the available supply unless we take action now, which is why we still all need to do our bit to use less.”

The projects form a key part of the companies’ 25-year Water Resources Management Plans, and are linked to wider regional plans led by Water Resources East.

Hannah Stanley-Jones, head of future resources strategy for Anglian Water said:

“These new reservoirs will supply drinking water, but they bring much wider opportunities. We plan to provide new places for people to visit and enjoy, economic investment for communities, and homes for wildlife. We have seen what a positive contribution our existing water parks can bring for the people living and working near them. We want to create the same with these new reservoirs.”

Anglian Water says the first consultation will include the proposed locations and an assessment of what is required “to deliver them responsibly by minimising any impacts on the environment and local communities”. Communities will have an input into the design.

Daniel Johns, managing director, Water Resources East and chair of the South Lincs Water Partnership and Fens Water Partnership, said: “Both the Fens and Lincolnshire reservoirs are critical to the region’s future prosperity and environmental health as the changing climate makes existing water resources less reliable. Eastern England needs to make the most of the rain that does fall in our river catchments, the driest part of the country. That means significantly more water storage is urgently needed.

“What’s particularly exciting about these two reservoir projects is the huge potential for both to deliver much wider benefits for agriculture, for local communities and the regional economy.”

Cambridge Water is responsible for supplying water in Cambridge and some of the surrounding area, while Anglian Water covers a broad area of Eastern England. Neither has imposed a hosepipe ban this summer, despite calls from community and wildlife groups to do so.

Visit anglianwater.co.uk/new-reservoirs for more on the plans.