Strategic Resource Options

Background

We provide, on average, 900 million litres of drinking water to approximately 3.6 million people, or 1.4 million households every day. The water we supply is currently mostly from local sources, with 65% coming from aquifers (porous rocks that store water below the ground) and 35% from rivers. We often have to move our water a considerable distance from where we source it, to where we treat it and then distribute it to your tap.

Every five years, Affinity Water is required to produce a Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) setting out how we will manage our water supplies over a minimum of the next 25 years. We published our final WRMP in October 2024. Our plan considers the key challenges we face, such as climate change, environmental protection, population growth and the risk of drought, to ensure a resilient future supply of water for our customers.

Our WRMP prioritises a demand-management approach to ensuring a resilient water supply. This includes measures such as installing meters, reducing leakage and promoting household water efficiency. However, we have acknowledged that this won't be enough to meet future demand, and we will also need significant new infrastructure, such as inter-regional water transfers and reservoirs, to ensure we continue to supply enough water to meet our customers’ needs.

The scale and complexity of the new infrastructure we will need to secure enough water resources for the future means we need to start planning and developing solutions now. Infrastructure of this scale needs long lead-in times for it to be 'construction ready' and able to deliver water to the places where, and when, it's needed most.

Affinity Water’s Strategic Solutions

We can't meet the scale of the water resources we need for the future, solely with the options available in our own supply area. We've been working closely with other water companies and third parties including Severn Trent, Thames Water, Southern Water and Canal & River Trust (CRT) to look more strategically for options to supply water to areas where we predict a deficit. These schemes are referred to as Strategic Resource Options or SROs. We are currently developing three of the schemes identified and considered in our Water Resources Management Plan (WRMP) as set out below. They will deliver social, environmental and economic benefits for the regions and communities we serve, with the aim of significantly increasing our future water supply to our customers.

Our Strategic Resource Options (SROs)

1. Grand Union Canal Transfer (GUCT)

The GUCT is a water transfer scheme and is a combination of two SROs - known as Minworth SRO and GUC SRO. It will be the first of our SROs to be delivered with a planned completion in 2032. It utilises the existing canal infrastructure to transfer treated wastewater from Severn Trent's wastewater recycling centre at Minworth in the Midlands, to Affinity Water customers in the Southeast, who we predict will experience a water deficit by 2032.

2. South East Strategic Reservoir (SESRO)

This new reservoir located near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, offers storage and a resilient supply of raw water to the River Thames during periods of low flow, for subsequent re-abstraction in London. It will supply water to local customers, as well as homes and businesses across London and the South East, including customers served by Affinity Water and Southern Water. It is planned to begin operating in 2040.

3. Thames to Affinity Transfer (T2AT)

This raw water transfer scheme relies on source water from the new reservoir near Abingdon (SESRO). We have identified two possible ‘corridors’ - the fluvial Thames and London re-use; both would include a new water treatment works and conveyance routes. We are in the early stages of developing the T2AT scheme, with a planned completion in the 2040s.

Developing our proposals

Our gated reports

• In early July 2021, we submitted our Gate 1 reports to RAPID for their detailed review of our first stage assessments of our three planned SROs.
• We received permission to progress to Gate 2 and, following our development work, our reports were submitted in November 2022.
• We received permission to progress to Gate 3 and are now in the development work period for this Gate. The Gate 3 reports will be submitted on different dates for each scheme, depending on their varying proposed completion dates. Once the Gate 3 reports are submitted and reviewed, they will await approval to move to the Gate 4 development work which precedes our Gate 4 report submissions. Gate 4 is the final stage in the gated process.

Additional information submitted to RAPID as part of the review process, and the draft decisions can be viewed in the documents folder on this page.