Two Hampshire water resource schemes clear RAPID’s second checkpoint

Regulatory alliance RAPID has cleared two of the strategic water resources schemes proposed for Hampshire through Gate 2, the second checkpoint of its programme.

RAPID approved the continuation of a project to develop a second raw water transfer from the Havant Thicket reservoir, and another to recycle wastewater. A third proposal, for a desalination plant at Fawley, was dropped.

The Hampshire schemes are on the ‘accelerated’ track of the RAPID process due to the urgency of the need to cut abstractions from local chalk streams.

Meanwhile, RAPID also gave the green light for two new solutions (which recently entered the standard track) to progress through Gate 1 to Gate 2. This brings them into alignment with all of the other standard track schemes.

One is to expand the Upper Derwent Valley reservoir – a range of options including raising an existing dam, constructing a new dam, or developing a fourth reservoir will be explored.

The other is to repurpose a quarry in the Mendips as a reservoir once quarry operations cease in 2040. This could supply water to the West Country and/or South East England.