Back in 2023, Guildford suffered a water outage that left the town feeling vulnerable. The result was that Thames Water decided that changes needed to be made in order to ensure that that sort of thing wouldn’t happen again.
What followed was the green-lighting of a £45 million project that would see improvements made to the water pipes and all but guarantee Guildford’s water security moving forward. Now, more than two years after Thames Water confirmed the launching of the new water pipe project, the project is nearing completion and Guildford’s vulnerability will be less in the future.
What Happened in 2023
It was in the November of 2023 that thousands of people in Guildford and Godalming were left without water for more than a week. In excess of 500 postcodes were affected by a fault at Ladymead Water Treatment Works, with the outage initially leaving seven postcodes either without any water or else with low water pressure. There was then a separate incident that caused further issues. Thames Water had to organise bottled water collection points at Crown Court Car Park, in Godalming, as well as Artington Park and Ride on Old Portsmouth Road in Guildford.
The issue led one Waverley Borough Council member, Paul Follows, to declare that the water infrastructure in the United Kingdom was ‘clearly crumbling’, wondering why a ‘major incident’ hadn’t been called much earlier than it actually was. Thames Water hosted a meeting with the general public at the University of Surrey, looking to explain what went wrong to leave as many as 13,000 residents without water for several days. There were numerous things that were blamed for the incident, including Storm Ciaran and a motor failure, amongst several other factors.
The Water Pipe Project
In the wake of what happened in 2023, Thames Water confirmed that the company would be investing more than £45 million in the town. The aim of the investment was to see drinking water transferred from Pewley Downs Reservoir into Netley Mill Water Treatment Works, with Galliford Try carrying out the work on behalf of Thames Water. The work began in the February of 2024, seeing workers in place from 7.30am until 6pm Monday to Friday and between 8am and 1pm on weekends when work needed to be carried out. The hope is that the project will increase the East Guildford water supply’s resilience.
Initially, planners needed to ensure that impacts on the environment as well as the area’s cultural heritage needed to be avoided. Biodiversity enhancements were put in place, ensuring the project area would see a net gain on a biodiversity front. One of the big problems that Thames Water faced was that Guildford was something of an ‘island zone’ at the time, which meant that the company was unable to pipe water in from outside of the town whilst also being faced with the challenge of the limited storage capacity for the water that was already in place nearby.
A New Transfer Pipe
The main solution that Thames Water came up with for the problem was to see a new transfer pipe put in place that would connect the water supply to the west of Guildford with the east of the town. The project is now nearing its completion, seeing water flow from Pewley Reservoir to Netley Mill Water Treatment Works in order to ensure that homes in Cranleigh as well as the surrounding area will have water flowing to them even in incidents where there are problems similar to those that struck back in 2023. That, though, isn’t the only upgrade that Thames Water is looking to complete.
Another major project, aimed at improving plant reinstatement in the event of future such outages, is also underway at Shalford Water Treatment Works. There are also disinfection system upgrades that are being carried out, but that project is not due for completion until 2028. That is also in addition to the £46 million that has been spent already, with the new works costing in the region of £35 million. This will hopefully ensure that the residents of Guildford won’t be left without water again at any point in the future, but Thames Water also admitted they couldn’t promise that.
Still Work to Be Done
Whilst those living in Guildford might understandably want the security of their water to be guaranteed, the reality is that there is still work that needs to be carried out around the town. Guildford Road, for example, still has to have around five kilometres of clean water pipe put in place, coming off the back of burst pipes across the preceding few years. That work is scheduled to begin in the January of next year.
The Thames Water Strategic Programme Director for Water, Paul Wetton, made the point that such work is important for the prevention of interruptions to services in the future. He said,
Our purpose is to deliver life’s essential service, so our customers, communities and the environment can thrive. Since 2023 we have focused on improving the resilience and reliability of the water supply in Guildford and the surrounding areas. We have made notable upgrades to our water treatment and are now nearing completion of relaying the pipeline between the east and west of Guildford. These upgrades and improvements will be vital in helping to prevent future supply interruptions across the local area.
Hopefully, the majority of the work will be completed soon.