Wessex Water is set to complete its vast new water supply grid, part of a total of £260 million the company will spend in the next financial year on schemes that will safeguard and improve water and sewerage services.

As part of the grid project, the water company is building a 200km (124 miles) water supply pipe from the south of its region in Dorset to Salisbury in Wiltshire, via Blandford and Shaftesbury.

This is the largest scheme ever undertaken by the company and provides important new infrastructure for the South West region with connections to Bournemouth Water, Bristol Water and South West Water via Exmoor's Wimbleball reservoir.

Drummond Modley, grid programme manager, said:

"The water supply grid will ensure we can meet our customer demands for the next 25 years. It will provide security of supply through its ability to redistribute surplus water to areas in deficit within our region, and it will also allow blending of sources to maintain water quality."

The grid comprises more than 50 individual projects and work has been carried out in a sustainable manner to preserve and enhance the sensitive environments in which it is located.

One of the key innovations of the project is The Optimiser, digital technology which manages the flow of water through the grid. In a first for the UK, the technology centrally controls and monitors the transfer of water along a new 74km trunk main,

As well as the grid, Wessex Water is also investing around £15 million in a new sewer to cater for ongoing and future development in North Bristol and South Gloucestershire.

Once built, the sewer will divert waste water flows to Bristol water recycling centre in Avonmouth via a route around the north of the city rather than alongside the River Frome.

Overall the firm has set aside £74 million for improving and maintaining its water treatment works and water recycling centres in 2018/19. A further £33 million will be spent on environmental protection and improvement projects across the region.