Havant Climate Alliance has been campaigning against Southern Water’s plans to recycle effluent from Budds Far, store it in the new Havant Thicket Reservoir and then pump it 40km to Otterbourne.
Urgent – Sign up now to support the Water Matters Community representation to PINS re HWTWRP
Southern Water have submitted their DCO planning application to recycle the final effluent from the Budds Farm sewage works to treat and put into the Havant Thicket Reservoir, that will then be used to supply our drinking water.
- We are now at the critical stage to challenge the proposal and need your urgent support.A planning application for pumping treated effluent water from Budds Farm Waste Water Treatment Works in Bedhampton to the Havant Thicket Reservoir has been submitted to the Secretary of State who will make the final decision on the proposal.
- The original planning application under which the reservoir is currently being constructed in Havant Thicket was agreed by the Planning Committee at Havant Borough Council and was for a spring water fed reservoir.
- lf you oppose the proposal for effluent recycling and have not already signed the petition please do so and also share with your friends.
- Summary Table We have used the approved list of topics of concern agreed by the community to draft a summary table setting out our objection, concerns and the topics we want the examination to consider.
Bob has created a new Water Matters web page where you can view the table summarising the concerns and sign up to support the community’s representation to the Planning Inspectorate. A copy of the information is also attached. A big thank you to Bob.
Link – Will you support the Water Matters Community response?
You only have until the 23 August at midday to register your support for the Water Matters Representation.
(please share the link asap with your colleagues & friends)
You can sign up as individual councillors, parish councillors, resident/ customer, but there is also the opportunity for you to sign up a group as well, if you have the support of your members. For example; this might apply to FoE (Havant), Havant Climate Alliance and a Residents Association, so you could register your support as both a group and as individuals.
Anyone who is concerned about Southern Water’s plans for effluent recycling and who agrees with our objection and concerns can support the Water Matters Community representation by signing up on the webpage, so do share the link with anyone you know who may be concerned.
The full summary table below will be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate along with a report that has supporting evidence, references and the full requests to the Examining Authority on behalf of the Water Matters Community on 24 August 2026.
I will email a number of MP’s (Fareham, Gosport, Hamble, East Hants, Chichester) to ask them to sign up and support our representation, but suggest that those in the Havant area write to Alan Mak and urge him to support the Water Matters Community representation, and also make his own.
Please sign up as soon as possible to indicate your support & share the link.
Note: Supporting Water Matters does not itself make you an Interested Party in the DCO examination. If you want the formal right to make further written submissions and to request to speak at hearings, you should also submit your own Relevant Representation directly to the Planning Inspectorate by 11:59pm on 24 August 2026. The Planning Inspectorate has confirmed that you can submit your own response & support the Water Matters Community Representation.
Some of the facts
We are not short of water in the Portsmouth Water area where we get most of our water from Bedhampton Springs. This is spring water that has been naturally filtered through chalk downland.
Havant Thicket Reservoir is currently being built to take excess water from Bedhampton Springs in winter. This will provide water to the Southampton/Winchester area where they are short of water. It will help reduce current over abstraction from the Itchen and Test which are rare chalk streams.
Despite this Southern Water are now planning to build a water recycling plant in Havant, to increase drought resilience in a 1 in 500 year event. It will take effluent from Budds Farm sewage works and process it using reverse osmosis (forcing water through fine membranes), ultra violet light and chemicals.
This will remove most but not all contaminants of concern.
The recycled effluent will be pumped to Havant Thicket Reservoir where it will mix with the spring water. The mixed water will then be pumped to Farlington Water Treatment Works, for supply to Portsmouth Water customers, or to Otterbourne for distribution to the Southampton/Winchester area by Southern Water.
From around 2035 Portsmouth Water customers, including those in Portsmouth, will receive the mixed water during times of drought, and from around 2040 they will routinely receive the recycled effluent mixed with spring water.
Effluent recycling already occurs elsewhere in the world, where there are no other alternatives, but usually in more drought stricken countries. Where it does happen very careful monitoring and management is needed to prevent contaminants getting through. We can’t trust Southern Water to do this.
We know from pollution testing in the Harbours, that there are many contaminants of concern in sewage. Southern Water already recognise that phosphates will not be sufficiently removed by the recycling process and will need to be dealt with in the reservoir.
A trial recycling plant at Budds Farm demonstrated that not all contaminants were removed, and not all the contaminants found in sewage were tested for.
There is no plan to control the sewage catchment e.g. possible chemical pollution from industrial processes, before it is recycled.
Southern Water will be responsible for checking the recycled water quality before it enters the reservoir. We do not trust them to do this safely. This risks contaminating the drinking water of thousands of people, as well as biodiversity in the reservoir.
It is planned to build the recycling plant on top of a toxic landfill site at Broadmarsh in Havant, which includes asbestos waste. Construction will require piling and tunneling through this, which will mobilise leachate in the waste. This will increase the risk of contamination of Langstone Harbour and its wildlife. There are safer locations for the plant which have been rejected, but a safer alternative should be found.
Harmful effects on sea life are possible due to the reject water from the process (x4 more concentrated than treated sewage), being discharged into the Solent from the Eastney Long Sea Outfall.
The technology is not fit for purpose and will cost too much to run. The nature of the recycling technology means that the recycling plant must run 365 days per year, even when the extra water is not needed.
The recycling technology needs large amounts of electricity, and related carbon emissions, to run, at a time when there are already heavy demands on the grid from e.g. data centres and EV charging. With the cost of chemicals, the total will result in huge bills for Southern Water’s drinking water customers. Construction of the recycling plant alone is expected to cost £1.2 billion (and rising) and its operation, including pumping water from the reservoir to Otterbourne, is estimated to be over £3 million per year.
There are cheaper and more sustainable alternative solutions to recycling effluent.
Although climate change is predicted to result in us having periods of drought, periods of heavy rain are also predicted. We only gather 1% of the free rain that falls on the UK. As well as building more reservoirs (3 the size of Havant Thicket could be built for the price of the recycling plant), there are underground aquifers that could be used to store excess water. There is also the option of abstracting water from the Itchen and other rivers just before it reaches the sea, instead of further up, which would solve the problem of over-abstraction leaving rivers without enough water for wildlife.
Southern Water have a very poor record of fixing leaking water supply pipes, and replacing water mains when needed. They lose 22% of water abstracted of which 90 million litres per day is treated drinking water. They say that they can only reduce leakage by 53% by 2050. However a water leaks specialist has advised us that they could reduce water loss by 53% by 2040 and 70% by 2050. If this could be done in conjunction with other more sustainable water source solutions, there would be no need for additional water from recycling.
Alternative options need to be pursued. If they are not sufficient to replace effluent recycling, at least they can delay the recycling project, which may enable the technology to develop further so that it is more fit for purpose as a drought resource, including using less energy and carbon.
Southern Water will be submitting their application (Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project) to the Secretary of State at the end of this year, when they will be seeking a Development Consent Order. After that there will be a 12 week consultation period. It is important that all interested parties raise their concerns.
Objections to the scheme have been raised by:
Havant Borough Council and Rowlands Castle Parish Council.
And by local MPs Damian Hinds, Alan Mak, Suella Braverman, Jess Brown-Fuller and Paul Holmes
The Water Matters Community represents local groups who have concerns about the effluent recycling project. They include The Solent Protection Society, Havant Climate Alliance, Havant Friends of the Earth, Hayling Island Residents’ Association, Hayling Sewage Watch, Save our Island, Havant Civic Society, Surfers against Sewage, and SOSCA (Save our South Coast Alliance).
Our advisors are retired professionals who have had many years of experience in the Water Industry.
More detailed information can be found at havantmatters.org/water
Havant Climate Alliance 