Water for Life – Hampshire
To protect the health of Hampshire's precious chalk stream rivers, we must reduce how much water we take from them when river flows are low. This means investing in new water sources for the area.
Water scarcity across Hampshire
Water scarcity is impacting regions across the world including the South East of England, which has been officially classed as water stressed due to a growing population and climate change.
Hampshire has always relied on the environment for drinking water, with most of it coming from underground and the rest from sensitive chalk stream rivers, the Test and Itchen. There’s not an infinite supply of water so we must be careful about how much water we take from the environment, especially when river flows are low.
By investing in new water sources for the region – through our Water for Life Hampshire initiative, we can protect both the environment and future water supplies.
How we're solving the problem
Minimising leakage
Our teams work seven days a week to reduce the amount of water lost from our network. We’re aiming to halve leakage by 2050.
Saving water
We’re encouraging everyone to reduce the amount of water they use from 127 litres per person, per day to 100 by 2045. Saving water can also reduce bills.
Catchment First
Through local partnerships, our Catchment team use nature-based solutions to improve water quality and protect the health of our rivers and seas.
Water transfers
We’re developing new pipelines to transfer additional water supplies from neighbouring water companies that have more available. This will help move water to where it is most needed.
Water recycling
This is tried and tested technique that will provide a reliable water supply to our customers, even in times of severe drought, and will reduce the amount we need to take from the environment.
Hampshire Grid
We’re building new pipelines and pumping stations connecting our water supply works in Hampshire to make sure there is enough water for everyone, including the environment, during a drought.
Our projects in Hampshire
Thames to Southern Transfer Project
We're planning to build a new water supply works and a new pipeline capable of transferring 120-million litres of water per day between neighbouring water companies to help keep Hampshire’s taps and rivers flowing.
Additional steps to protect and preserve water
We're driving down leaks across our network – reducing them by 15% by 2025, 40% by 2040 and 50% by 2050. To help ease the pressures on our previous rivers, find out how you can find and fix leaks.
We’re working with farmers, businesses and environmental groups to protect and restore local water sources in specific areas, which we call catchments. For example, if chemicals such as pesticides and fertilisers enter watercourses, they can make these sources unavailable. By reducing the use of contaminants or stopping them from entering watercourses, we can safeguard these catchments for future use.
Until we’ve addressed the shortfall in Hampshire, the area will be at risk of water shortages. In the meantime, we're supporting and incentivising each person to reduce their use to 100 litres a day (from an average of 129) via our Target 100 campaign.
Our strategic solutions
Find out more
Technical documents
These documents give more detail on the solutions we are exploring. They include our technical investigations, feasibility studies and submissions to our regulators.
Other strategic resource options
Here are details of other strategic regional solutions which we’re working on with other water companies to support our Water for Life – Hampshire programme.
Procurement e-portal
For details of our current opportunities, including the ‘Hampshire Water Transfer and Water Recycling Project’ please log in or register on our procurement e-portal
Water for Life – Hampshire
Hampshire has always relied on the environment for drinking water. However, to protect the health of the county’s chalk stream rivers, we must reduce how much water we take from them when river flows are low. This means investing in new water sources for the region.
We're transforming the way we source, treat and supply water
Creating a new, resilient and sustainable water supply will protect and enhance the county’s rare and sensitive chalk streams, while maintaining supplies for our communities and the local economy.
We’re investing in a range of solutions:
- Developing new sources of water – including water recycling to keep treated water within our network
- Building a network of new pipelines to link up our key sites and allow additional bulk transfers of water from neighbouring water companies
- Teaming up with Portsmouth Water to build a new reservoir at Havant Thicket to be used as a strategic water resource for the South East.