Anglian Water has been given planning permission for a 70km section of a multi-million-pound water main grid for the east of England - the largest drinking water project the UK has seen for a generation and one of the largest infrastructure projects in Europe.
The water company is creating hundreds of kilometres of new, interconnecting water mains across its region. Once complete, the new network of pipelines will be longer than any UK motorway and will help tackle future water shortages by moving water from ‘wetter’ to ‘drier’ areas.
Anglian Water has now been granted planning permission by all three local authorities (Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, West Suffolk Council and East Cambridgeshire) along the route of the 70-kilometre stretch. Being built in five sections, work is almost complete on the first section between Lincoln to Grantham.
It will run from Bexwell, near Downham Market in Norfolk, to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, and will include three new pumping stations at Bexwell, Kentford and Rede, a smaller booster station at Lady’s Green and a new water storage tank at Rede.
The mammoth project is part of the water company’s Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP). Published in 2019, it looks 25 years ahead to make the region resilient to extreme weather challenges as a result of climate change, like last summer’s drought.
Once complete, the new network – hundreds of kilometres of underground, interconnecting pipelines – will move water from ‘wetter’ to ‘drier’ areas and help prevent water shortages. It will stretch from North Lincolnshire, through Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, to Suffolk and Essex.
It is Anglian Water's flagship project, the biggest in the water company's history and one of the UK's largest construction projects.
Rob Slade, Head of Strategic Supply Integration at Anglian Water, said: “Last summer’s unprecedented heatwave highlighted the need for investment in this kind of work. Despite being declared in drought by the Environment Agency in August, we were of just a handful of water companies to not need to impose a hosepipe ban, thanks to years of investment in projects like this, to protect the region’s public water supplies.
"The East of England is one of the driest regions in the UK and has a rapidly growing population, which is why we've spent many years developing and implementing our plans to combat water shortages and increase resilience.
“Simply put, without the new water main grid, demand for water will outstrip supply and parts of the east of England could run out of water as soon as 2030. The importance of our work really cannot be underestimated.”
The entire network is expected to go into service in 2025.
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