Anglian Water has successfully put its £28 million innovative Grafham flow reversal resilience scheme which transports water from Rutland to Grafham into operation for the first time.

The new scheme allows the transfer of treated drinking water between the Rutland, Grafham, and Pitsford Water Treatment Works (known collectively as the Ruthamford network).

The 16 months prior to September 2019 were one of the driest the East of England has seen in recent times. Proving the viability of this ground-breaking flow reversal scheme has slotted another piece of the drought resilience jigsaw into place to ensure a resilient water supply for the west of the region.

The engineering element of the multi-million-pound scheme was completed in 2017 and used industry-first technology to support Grafham Water Treatment Works. By installing specialist large scale pumps,

Anglian Water engineers have now completed the trial to reverse the flow of water between Grafham WTW and Hannington, near Wellingborough through a single pipeline.

Paul Valleley, Director of Water Services at Anglian Water said:

"We knew the concept of transferring potable water through this network was always feasible, but the trial entailed a significant amount of work to ensure customers water supplies were not affected or water quality compromised. Over the first half of this winter the trial has proven to be a complete success.

"Our reservoir at Rutland is almost full, but we wanted to make the most of the extra water available to us at this time of year by moving it to support the area supplied by Grafham Water. Our colleagues at Affinity Water also rely on some of our water from Grafham reservoir to supply their customers, allowing them to rest their abstraction on chalk aquifers, so by using this surplus water, we're doing all we can to bolster supplies ahead of next summer and benefitting the wider environment."

The concept of the Ruthamford network was originally developed in the mid 1970's to accommodate the growth areas around Milton Keynes. The East of England is the driest part of the UK and one of the fastest growing – the scheme provides the additional flexibility and capability to move supplies around to help Anglian to meet those challenges.

Originally, engineers planned to lay an additional 37 km pipeline linking the two areas together. However, innovative trials proved that it would be possible to reverse the direction of flow through the existing water main instead.

By using existing assets and with the addition of strategic pumping stations and a new treated water reservoir engineers not only saved over £30 million, but also 61 per cent (almost 27,000 tonnes) of embodied carbon, which had been originally anticipated for the scheme.

There is however still more work to do. Anglian's Water Resources Management Plan, sets out how water supplies for the East of England will be managed over the next 25 years. Part of the plan includes the construction of a new series of interlinking, large scale water mains, which will join up the water network in across the region.

Paul Valleley continued:

"Our plan proposes building even greater resilience for our customers. We're planning a £500 million scheme of interconnecting pipes to bring water from north Lincolnshire down into Ruthamford and then on to parts of west Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, allowing us to move water from areas of surplus to areas of deficit. This investment will provide resilience against climate change and future droughts, as well as allowing us to reduce groundwater abstraction from environmentally sensitive chalk catchments in the East of our region.

"It will be one of the largest strategic pipeline projects the UK has ever seen, ensuring we can keep taps running for years to come, and tackle the challenges of a changing climate and a rapidly growing population."