Southern Water has invested more than £14 million at two of its wastewater treatment works (WwTW) to improve river water quality near Chichester and reduce storm overflows.

Photo: Lavant WwTW

At its Lavant WwTW the water company has carried out £7.6 million of work, including:

• installation of a new storm tank and a new primary tank
• a new system to receive wastewater and screen it
• work to double the amount of wastewater that can be treated.

All of this will help improve water quality at the River Lavant next to the site which will also contribute to wider work to improve water quality at Chichester Harbour.

The work at Lavant comes after the utility also built a wetlands at the site in 2023 which is helping to treat flows and reduce storm overflows. Southern Water teams in the area are also working to reduce groundwater infiltration through sealing sewers in villages like East Dean and Funtington

At its Tangmere WwTW, Souther Water has completed £7 million worth of work which includes:

• a new storm tank
• work to reduce phosphates through ferric dosing
• new settlement tanks

All of this will help improve water quality at the Aldingbourne Rife watercourse, that feeds into Bognor Regis – it comes after the site underwent a £17 million upgrade in 2017.

The work at both sites is being carried out by contractor GtB who are supporting Southern Water on a number of other key projects to treatment sites across its region, including recently at its Portswood works in Southampton.

Lee Hooper project manager for Southern Water, said:

“We know that we have a key role to play in improving water quality at the River Lavant and Chichester Harbour, our investment in both these works and others in the area demonstrate we’re making progress in this area.

“We’re pleased that this work has been completed ahead of a crucial five-year period where we’re excited to get started on even more work in the area that we will announce this year.”

Southern Water will also be investing heavily in its Apuldram treatment works next to Chichester Harbour – an announcement about this will be made later this year.

David Payne GTb Project Manager, added:

“We are delighted to be working on these two wastewater treatment works in partnership with Southern Water. The work we are doing will help store more water within the treatment works before it is treated and released to the environment. The improvements to the treatment process will also help meet tighter regulations.”