Hungerford Reservoir Expanded

Hungerford reservoir is being expanded to safeguard the town's water resources for at least the next 25 years.

Thames Water will spend the next six months, from February 17 to the end of August, building an additional cell on the reservoir to increase its capcity by a third.

Lawrence Gosden, Thames Water's head of capital delivery, said: "We provide THE essential service – clean, safe drinking water and sanitation - to nearly 14m people across London and the Thames Valley, and as a long-term business our job is to make sure we can do this effectively not just today but for many decades to come.

"Expanding Hungerford reservoir will enable our water resources to keep pace with the forecast rise in demand caused by predicted population growth for at least the next 25 years.

"Each one of our water customers uses a tonne a week of water on average. Making sure there is enough to go round is a must-do job, which is why the £800,000 project we're doing at Hungerford is so important."

The new cell on the covered-over reservoir, which supplies 2,800 properties in the Hungerford area, is being designed to fit sympathetically into its new surroundings, with all efforts made to minimise the impact of the work on nearby residents.

Anthony Buckwell, the mayor of Hungerford, said: "Improving the town's water supply is something to be welcomed in light of probable increases in population in future.

"We will obviously be keeping a close eye on Thames Water to ensure the expansion work at the reservoir is carried out as sensitively as possible."

The reservoir acts as a holding tank, taking in water from the adjacent water treatment plant during off-peak periods so there is enough to supply all customers in the area when demand for water increases.

Water is abstracted from underground boreholes before being treated, cleaned and fed into Hungerford reservoir, which stores the water and feeds it on demand into the local mains network to go to people's taps.

Thames Water supplies 2.6bn litres of water a day to its 8.7m tap water customers, recycling 13.8m people's wastewater – 2.8bn litres a day – safely back to the environment 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

SOURCE: Thames Water