Southern Water has opened its doors at Foreness Point Wastewater Pumping Station (WPS) in Margate, to allow local businesses and organisations to tour the site.

In recent years, the water company has invested £4 million on improving the works at Foreness Point, including refurbishing the site's screens, designed to remove wet wipes and other non-biodegradable items, to help reduce blockages and wastewater flooding in people’s homes and gardens.   

The upgrade is part of an ongoing investment and maintenance programme at the site- Southern Water also been working with local stakeholders and residents in order to raise awareness of the problems that incorrectly disposing of fat, oil and grease (FOG), as well as other non-flushable items, can cause.

Each year there are more than 23,000 blockages on the 39,000km of sewers across Southern Water’s region, about two-thirds of these are caused by FOG being poured down the kitchen sink or by non-flushable items.

In the last year alone the utility has removed more than 217 tonnes of non-biodegradable items from Foreness Point WPS and Weatherlees Wastewater Treatment Works.

A further £8 million of improvements are planned to increase resilience at the Foreness Point Wastewater site and will be implemented over the next few years.