Southern Water’s healthy harbours project to baseline natural capital

Stakeholders around the Chichester, Langstone and Pagham harbours are to collaborate in producing a natural capital baseline as a shared evidence base to inform future decision making on projects to reverse the decline the harbours’ habitats.

Following an inaugural summit in May, Southern Water has hosted a second meeting on the health of the harbours, involving senior leaders from 18 national and regional organisations, chaired by Professor Sir Dieter Helm, former chair of the Natural Capital Committee. The meeting discussed action already being taken and agreed a shared vision for healthy harbours by 2030. The baseline current ecological status of the harbours and factors contributing to their environmental decline will be available later this year.

A steering group has been formed, and a charter to spell out what is needed to achieve the vision will be developed. Another meeting is due to be held before the end of the year.

Sir Dieter said: “We have heard how much is already happening. Now we need to work in co-operation, break out of our silos and map out the priority projects so that the funding and action comes together to secure the best environmental outcomes for the harbours and the local residents of today and into the future.”

Ian McAulay, Southern Water’s CEO, said: “We are achieving something substantial here. It’s one of the most exciting projects of my career. We know collective action is needed to improve the harbours’ water quality and natural habitats and it’s encouraging to see so many partners coming together with that purpose.

“The natural capital baseline we are funding for this group is progressing well and will be ready later this year. It will be leading edge and the primary source of accurate evidence of flows and polluting loads from all sources which are entering watercourses. By measuring those we will be able to take effective action to reduce these and manage catchments for the purpose of improving water quality.”