Fact Check
2 hours ago Victoria Walton Oxfordshire political reporter Thames Water The proposed White Horse Reservoir would supply 15 million people in the south east of England As plans move forward to build a 150 billion litre reservoir in the Thames Valley, attention is now turning to how to fill it. Thames Water will be applying for planning permission for the White Horse Reservoir, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, by the end of the year, with a view to supplying 15 million customers across the south east by 2040. According to the plans, the facility, with an estimated cost of between £5.5bn and £7.5bn, would be filled with water from the River Thames in the winter "when there's plenty of water." But with the Thames Valley only having 35% of its average rainfall so far this month, an innovative project is finding natural ways to harvest the water further up stream.
The project has been given £100m over 20 years by Defra, to transform the natural environment, helping contribute towards flood resilience, promoting biodiversity and improving the supply of water to the south east. It works by managing the soil, helping it to become more crumbly in texture, allowing more rain to be absorbed into the limestone beneath, rather than washing away. This helps to refill large, natural reservoirs beneath the valley, which can be drawn upon during times of drought.
Tim Field, director of the Evenlode Landscape Recovery programme, said retaining the natural reservoir under the Cotswolds is where water resilience really begins. Natural Reservoir Thames Water say water security is one of key reasons for a new reservoir to be built. But Tim Field, director of the Evenlode Landscape Recovery programme, said retaining the natural reservoir under the Cotswolds is where water resilience really begins.
"We can't just rely on reservoir building to overcome this problem. Because if we're abstracting it [water] from the rivers, the rivers just run dry," Field said. "We've got to look after the supply to those reservoirs, as well as just assuming we can build it and fill it." "The landscape scale reservoir under our feet in the Cotswold is so important to the resilience to the water supply in the south east," he added.
Getty Images The water stored at Farmoor Reservoir near Oxford is far below the average level Thames Water would expect It comes at a time when the UK has experienced its hottest summer on record, with storage at Oxford's Farmoor Reservoir 75% below the average for this time of year. Julie Morton, Thames Water's head of water resources, said "across our region, rainfall between March and August was less than half of what we would normally expect, and while some river levels have responded to recent rain, groundwater and soil moisture remain significantly below average." Ten hosepipe bans are still in place across the country. More on this story Relates links
Source: BBC
