Reservoir project almost complete
Thames Water has said an £800,000 project to expand Hungerford's reservoir capacity is almost finished
AN £800,000 project to expand Hungerford reservoir's capacity by a third is almost finished, Thames Water said this week.
The company began building an additional cell on the reservoir off Salisbury Road in February to safeguard the town's water resources for at least the next 25 years.
Hungerford is a storage reservoir - a covered-over holding tank that stores treated water on its way to 2,800 properties in the area.
Thames Water's head of capital delivery, Lawrence Gosden, 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 longterm 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.”
Thames Water said that the new cell on the covered-over reservoir was designed to “fit sympathetically to its new surroundings, with all efforts made to minimise the impact of the work on nearby residents.”
Former town councillor Anthony Buckwell, who was mayor at the time the work began, said in February: “Improving the town's water supply is something to be welcomed in light of probable increases in population in future.”
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.
The project is now in its final stages ahead of a four-week testing period to ensure the extension to the reservoir is working as planned.
The expanded reservoir is designed to ensure there is always sufficient water readily available at peak times of day.
Mr Gosden said: "All Hungerford's water comes from the Kennet catchment and is returned there after it is used, causing no lasting environmental impact on this important chalk stream and the wildlife habitats it supports.
“The aim of this work to expand the reservoir is to manage local water resources more effectively over the long term by increasing the treated water we hold in the reservoir.”
