Southern Water splashes out £8m to enhance its Ashlett Creek wastewater treatment plant at Fawley

More than £8m of enhancement work is being carried out at a Fawley wastewater treatment works.

The project at Southern Water’s Ashlett Creek facility is intended to improve water quality, reduce storm overflows and plan for future growth.

A new storm tank will be built to increase existing storage capacity by 2.3-million litres, or one Olympic-sized swimming pool.

The stored sewage would then be fully treated before being released back into the environment.

This is one of several projects around Southampton Water in which Southern Water is investing to meet new Environment Agency limits on storm spills to the estuary.

It is also investing nearly £13m at the city’s Woolston Wastewater Treatment Works.

Southern Water project manager, Jorge Rodriguez, said: “We know how important it is to improve water quality and protect the precious environment across the areas we serve.

“This exciting project will make a real difference doing that, and it will also help us with the challenge of more frequent heavier rainfall events and storms due to climate change.

“These works are a great example of our ongoing £2b investment to improve our performance and our assets.”

The Ashlett Creek work is being carried out by GTb, a joint venture between Galliford Try Environment and Binnies UK Ltd.

Its project manager Stuart Whisby said: “By making these improvements and upgrading some of the existing equipment, Southern Water will be able to meet new targets.

“This work will involve increased vehicle movements to the site. We would like to apologise in advance for any inconvenience our work may cause to those people living in the area."