Southern Water has announced more new schemes to tackle storm overflows in Kent - Queenborough. Sittingbourne. Faversham. Herne Bay and Whitstable will all benefit from from multi-million-pound projects.

The five Kent towns will all benefit from work to reduce storm overflows led by the water company’s Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force. Taking learning from previous schemes in Kent, Sussex and the Isle of Wight, it will expand the current work that is taking place at Whitstable to reduce storm overflows.

The projects will focus on preventing surface water entering the combined sewer system and will focus on separating it through finding any misconnected pipes where water ends up entering Southern Water’s network.

The work is part of the water company’s wider £1.5 billion Clean Rivers and Seas Plan that sets out how it will reduce storm overflows over the next ten years.

In Queenborough, teams will be bringing online additional storage at the treatment works as well as optimising the flow to the treatment works by using a smart catchment solution at our terminal pumping stations. The utility will also be investigating the use of sustainable drainage solutions (SuDS) and surface water removal.

In Sittingbourne the work will focus on sealing out the ground water infiltration into the sewer network. The work started on the 11th of August and Southern Water expects this to run on into the new year.

In Herne Bay the firm will be working to reduce storm overflows by creating a new surface water line and ensuring surface water goes into this rather than the combined sewer system.

In Faversham, the focus will be on a combination of surface water removal from the sewer network, the implementation of sustainable drainage systems as well as domestic water separation.

Southern Water will be expanding the work already done in Whitstable where it has already implemented a number of solutions to reduce storm overflows. The company said it will be using the lessons it has learnt to bring online more sustainable drainage systems as well as a large domestic separation scheme.

Angus Cramp - Programme Delivery Lead East from the Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force, commented:

“We’re really excited to be expanding the work we’ve been doing in Kent to reduce storm overflows to a number of new towns. We’re going to be implementing a mixture of nature-based and engineering solutions that will help make a real difference in helping to create cleaner rivers and seas in these areas.

“Customers will see an increased Southern Water presence in these towns and we will be providing updates about our work to customers in areas where we’re working and interested stakeholders.”