Anglian Water has started work this week along the coastline at Southend as part of a £3 million investment into improving local bathing waters by the water company.

The scheme will take place between now and end of Spring 2017 and involves installing a number of new storm water tanks to trap more rainwater, reducing the number of overflows that occur during storms and enabling the storm water to be sent to be cleaned before being released to sea.

Last year, over 70 per cent of the bathing waters in the Anglian Water region achieved the highest ‘Excellent’ standard, even in the face of the much stricter European standards introduced in 2015. Nine of Essex’ bathing waters were rated Excellent, many of which were awarded Blue Flags.

Jo Matthews, who looks after the coastline in Essex for Anglian Water said:

“We have an enormous stretch of coastline in our region and caring for it is hugely important to us. This is why we’ve been investing heavily in our coastal equipment for decades and have some of the most sophisticated coastal monitoring systems available. It’s also why we have specialist team focused entirely on beach water quality.”

"The latest £3million scheme in Southend will help to reduce the risk of sewer overflows affecting the coast and keep urban pollutants like dirt, car oils and chemicals out of the sea.”

The small but cumulative causes of diffuse pollution are the biggest cause of poor bathing water in the East of England. Diffuse pollution comes from a range of different sources, including:

• Rainwater run-off from roads, roofs, pavements and farmland that washes pollutants such as chemicals, animal mess and litter into the sea
• Misconnected house drains, which have a massive combined impact by sending foul waste out to rivers and the sea as if it were rainwater
• Large populations of roosting birds that cause large quantities of droppings to enter the bathing water
• Litter
• Trade waste
• Slurry from farms
• Animal waste from fields washing into watercourses when it rains
• Poorly maintained private cess pits and privately owned sewerage systems

Jo Matthews continued:

“We are working with local councils, businesses, farmers, and residents across the coastal region to pinpoint the causes of pollution and tackle them. In addition to this latest investment, we’re spending hundreds of thousands of pounds more on this type of partnership work which is having such a positive impact, especially in places like Southend where this year three beaches won new Blue Flags compared to last.”

“We will be working together to identify sources of diffuse pollution using state-of-the-art technology including CCTV, bacterial tracing, marine modeling, sampling and on-foot surveys of the coastal area.”