How Southern Water tackles storm overflows took top billing at a special 2-day programme of customer and stakeholder engagement events on the Isle of Wight.
More than 250 community members gathered in Newport and Ryde last week and heard about the investment and actions happening now, and into the future, to tackle the issues of most importance to customers.
Those present heard about how increased rainfall can put extra pressure on the sewer network when large volumes of surface water enter the system. To protect homes, schools and businesses from flooding, storm overflows pressure release valves allow excess flows to enter the environment – more commonly known as sewage releases.
Other topics raised by visitors to the events were the future resilience of high-quality water supplies, and supporting customers’ bills during the cost-of-living crisis.
Nick Mills, head of the Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force said: said:
“It was really good to hear from our customers on the Isle of Wight about what matters to them. We’re committed to improving our performance on the island, especially when it comes to reducing the number of storm overflow releases and we’re continuing to make good progress on our solutions on the island to do that, including installing water butts and creating sustainable urban drainage solutions.
“We were delighted that so many people took the time to attend, and it also gave us an opportunity to discuss other important issues how water will be provided in the future and how we can help customers with their bills during the cost-of-living crisis.”
Recently Southern Water extended the roll-out of water butts to Gurnard following a successful trial at Havenstreet, it also announced £4million plans to improve water quality on the Island.
Actions rather than words will help. Perhaps we need to go back to cobbled roads and streets so rainwater will be soaked up more naturally as the drains can’t manage and SW can’t cope! The climate changes are not going to lessen, and no doubt we will be in drought situation come summer with hose pipe ban due to lack of water storage on the Island. You only have to watch the weather across the world to see what will be coming our way later on.
Woke leftist! There is no climate change, the earth isn’t a globe, Southern Water cares about us.