Southern secures more time for Hampshire scheme ahead of DCO application

(by Verity Mitchell)

Southern Water has secured agreement from RAPID to move the Gate 4 submission date for its Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project (HWTWRP) back to July from May.

It said in its request letter to RAPID that allowing more time will enable further refinement of the project to reduce its impact on local communities and minimise consenting risk. These matters could cause later delays if not addressed sufficiently prior to application for a Development Consent Order (DCO).

The HWTWRP forms part of Southern Water’s wider Water for Life programme, which is intended to reduce abstraction pressure on environmentally sensitive chalk streams while improving long-term water resilience across the south east. The scheme combines treated recycled water with transfers from the new Havant Thicket Reservoir system to support supplies in Hampshire.

Comment:

The complexity of the project and the elongated procurement process have raised concerns from international contractors considering bidding for the scheme. 

Christopher Gasson, publisher of Global Water Intelligence, commenting more widely on discussions at May’s Global Water Summit held in Madrid, observed that: “The international project developer community seemed unimpressed by the opportunity to own and operate assets on behalf of the privatised water companies. The process is considered too complicated, with too much EPC [Engineering, Procurement, and Construction] risk, no scope for innovation, and too protracted.”