Southern Water: Director hits back after campaigners dub bathing water claims as 'absurd'

As previously reported in The News this week, Southern Water announced new data on the standard of water quality along the region’s coastlines – in Hampshire, 13 were rated 'excellent' bathing waters and one ‘sufficient’. The data came from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) but was rubbished by environmental campaigners who highlighted the coastal problems with sewage pollution and deteriorating biodiversity.

Now, Southern Water has responded to these concerns, with Toby Willison – director of quality and environment – addressing them directly in a letter.

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He said: ‘We understand our customers’ concerns over the pollution into our beautiful environment. Many of Southern Water’s colleagues live and swim in the region. They care about our beaches and are working hard to eliminate storm overflows, but it will take time owing to the scale and challenges of the infrastructure, and the need to separate at source the flow of water that enters the system.

‘We are making bold investments in environmental protection - £2 billion between 2020 and 2025. And our strategy to reduce our use of storm overflows and support bathing water improvements is industry leading.

‘It is only in exceptional circumstances that any untreated wastewater is released, and 94 per cent of our bathing waters are rated excellent or good. We have led the industry with our open and transparent approaches to reporting. Our beachbuoy app provides near real-time information on storm release activity near coastal bathing water. The alerts now take account of tidal conditions, and all data remain on our website.

‘While we have an important role to play in enhancing and maintaining water quality, there are a wide range of pollutions which have an impact – contaminated rainwater running off roads and agricultural land, wastewater from privately owned treatment works, boats and animals on the beach such as dogs and seabirds, and the overall steep rise in bathing water users all play a part. That’s why it is so important for all parties to work together.

‘Our Budds Farm treatment works in Havant is currently undergoing an £18 million investment, which will increase the size of its storm tanks by 50 per cent and enable it to treat more wastewater.

‘Bringing about an end to storm releases is an enormous challenge. In dry weather around 793 litres of wastewater per second travels from Portsmouth to Budds Farm. In rain due to the size of the catchment and geography this soars to 30,000 litres per second. The tanks at Budds Farm and the 40 million litre tanks at nearby Fort Cumberland can fill in less than 40 minutes. Keeping that rain out of our sewer system is the best way to cut storm releases, and that is why we are working with partners to tackle this issue through a combination of engineering and nature-based solutions. This will take time and a significant amount of money, but we are working hard to deliver for our customers and our environment.’