The Proposed Reservoir
The reservoir will be an above-ground reservoir which will be contained by walls between about 30 metres high with building starting in 2025. It will cover 4 square miles between the A338 and the A34 north of the railway line. The surface of the water will be covered with solar panels. There will be no space around the reservoir for leisure facilities.
It would hold about 150 million cubic metres of water and be capable of providing 600 million litres per day.
To see the draft map of the new reservoir see this page from the Thames Water Reservoir - Technical Report.
Water Resources South East is the grouping of 7 water South-East Water Companies – including Thames Water and Affinity Water. This is their draft Plan for the South-East until 2100.
The ‘Abingdon’ Reservoir is chosen for the Plan in the only scenario considered to 2040. If approved, a start would be made in 2025, and the reservoir would be filled from 2037 to 2039 and be ready for 2040.
The reservoir will be 30 metres above ground surrounded by grass banks and cover 4 square miles between the A338 and the A34 north of the railway line. The surface of the water will be covered with solar panels. There will be no space around the reservoir for leisure facilities.
At least half of the amount of water required by 2040 could be provided by a pipeline from the river Severn at a much lower cost and lower environment impact. The rest could be provided by reducing the leakage and improving water efficiency.
It is possible that an irrevocable decision could be made to go ahead with the reservoir at end of 2022.
For their (and our) responses see
For more background
Action organisation GARD (Group Against Reservoir Development) has battled for years against Thames Water's proposals for an "Abingdon reservoir".
They believe that other options are less costly, less damaging to the environment, less disruptive to local communities and more robust against climate change than the reservoir.
We submitted our objections to the plans pointing out that the reservoir was unnecessary in 2019 and the document can be accessed here ( our submission)