The Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling (HWTWR) scheme has become the first strategic water resource project to pass through Gate Three of the oversight process run by the Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development (RAPID).
RAPID will now release funding for the scheme to move on to the final stage, which it said meant that Southern Water and Portsmouth Water are likely to seek planning permission through a Development Consent Order application within the next 12-18 months.
HWTWR is an indirect water recycling solution. Purified recycled water will be stored alongside spring water at the new Havant Thicket reservoir, before being piped to a drinking water treatment works for further treatment before entering supply.
Hampshire and the wider region face a deficit of up to 192m litres of water a day by 2050. This scheme would provide a rainfall-independent new source of supply to make up around half of this shortfall.
Alongside the Gate Three approval, RAPID gave Portsmouth Water and Southern Water several priority actions to urgently address – for example, to promptly submit detailed further plans for customer engagement on the proposed scheme.
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