UPDATED: Southern Water has announced a ground-breaking £31.5million Bathing Water Enhancement Programme this morning (Monday) which will see around £6.6million invested to improve water quality at Shanklin.
Shanklin is 1 of 7 beaches in the South that will be the focus of Southern Water’s programme, with an aim of bringing bathing water quality up to Excellent standard.
Today’s announcement comes after a year of detailed investigations in the Shanklin area by a team of experts into what factors influence water quality – including coastal sampling, microbial (DNA) source tracing and CCTV surveys.
The investment was helped along by former local councillors Jon Gilbey and Richard Priest, who both spent over 14 months engaging with Southern Water, attending meetings and pushing for funding. Gilbey and Priest lost their seats in the recent Local Elections, with just 6 votes between Jon Gilbey and Conservative’s Michael Beston.
Key factors found to be affecting water quality include:
• Misconnections of wastewater pipes into the surface water – these misconnections can be traced to source by Southern Water and the local council can then work with householders to get the problem put right.
• DNA tracing showed contamination from dogs and seabirds was another key issue. Potential remedies include introducing restrictions on the beach during bathing water season and a public awareness campaign around not feeding birds as well as encouraging dog owners to clean up after their pets
• Agricultural run-off – solutions include working with key stakeholders, including agricultural landowners
In total 7 bathing waters have been chosen to receive additional investment, with the aim of them achieving ‘Excellent’ status over the 2019 bathing water season and beyond. These are:
• Sussex: Worthing, Selsey, Middleton-on-Sea
• Isle of Wight: Shanklin
• Kent: Deal Castle, Leysdown, Minster Leas
Southern Water’s Paul Kent has overseen the Bathing Water Enhancement Programme. He said:
“We’re immensely proud of this groundbreaking project and Shanklin was selected after a year long investigation in the sources of pollution.
“Our customers asked us to help boost more bathing waters in the region up to Excellent standard and, with the support of local authorities and others, that’s exactly what we’re doing.
“We’re thrilled to be playing such an active part in protecting and enhancing our region’s bathing waters.”
