WaGCG

Abingdon Reservoir

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.

2022 Consultation which could recommend the Reservoir

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.

Both the County and District Councils have strongly opposed the plans

For their (and our) responses see

County Council Response.

District Council Response.

Campaign Group Response.

I would have added the response from GARD but it's 82 pages and much too big for posting here.

For more background

Since 1975, Thames Water has considered options to increase the water available to London residents and the Abingdon Reservoir between Steventon, East Hanney and Drayton has been one of those options.

In 2010 a Public Enquiry ruled that Thames Water had not proven the case for a reservoir of 100 million cubic metres of water to supply the South East.

The Thames Water's draft Water Resources Management Plan includes building an above-ground reservoir just to the north of us which will be contained by walls between 15 and 25 metres high. That’s about the height of an 8 storey block of flats and higher than anything else in the Vale. It would hold about 150 million million cubic metres of water and be capable of providing 600 million litres per day.

Thames Water are looking to find an additional 660 million litres of water per day by 2080, mostly for London. They have the worst leakage record of all water companies – they were even fined by OFWAT for missing targets. The plan proposes to reduce leakage by 15% by 2025. However, if their leakage per property was as good as that of Southern Water or Anglian Water they could save about 260 million litres per day rather than the 110 million in the plan.

The plan states that by 2025 Thames Water will install a further 700,000 smart meters in customers’ homes, expecting to save 49 million litres of water per day. How much more could be saved after that from the remainder of the 15 million customers? A very conservative estimate would be at least 200 million litres more per day from a further 10% of customers.

By 2025 Thames Water plan to visit nearly 300,000 customers’ homes and businesses to promote water efficiency. This programme is estimated to save 24 million litres of water every day. Once again how much more could be saved in future years from the remainder of the 15 million customers? We think it would be a minimum of 100 million litres per day from an additional 10% of customers.

The plan proposes a new river abstraction scheme at Teddington generating 270 million litres per day. Yet GARD show that, by changing the way the scheme is operated, it could deliver 315 million litres per day. As water use grows the scheme output will grow so could reach 470 million litres per day by 2050 never mind 2080.

The plan will also obtain up to 285 million litres per day from the Beckton Re-use scheme yet GARD see no reason for a limit of less than 350 million litres.

Thames Water also suggest that transferring water from the River Severn could provide 180 million litres per day yet GARD believe that over 300 million litres per day is possible.

Adding all of these things up, they should be able to obtain 1,580 million litres per day. Much more than the 660 million they are looking for and without the financial and environmental cost of building a reservoir.

Back to Sustainable Development

There are five options for our area are:

A transfer of water from Wales, the Midlands and North West, via the River Severn to the River Thames

Water reuse schemes in London

A transfer from Thames Water to Affinity Water

A transfer from Thames Water to Southern Water

A huge new reservoir in between Marcham, Hanney, Drayton and Steventon.

Group Against Reservoir Development

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)