Local campaign group, Save Our Lands and River (SOLAR) has expressed opposition to Thames Water's Teddington Direct River Abstraction (TDRA) project.

The UK's largest water and wastewater company announced on 17 September 2024, that it will make further changes to its TDRA project following consultation feedback from over 2,000 people.

Thames Water has made changes to its TDRA proposals (Credit: Tilly O'Brien)

The initial project planned to build a river abstraction shaft upstream of Teddington Weir and to replace the abstracted water with an equal amount of recycled water from new tertiary treatment facilities located in Mogden Sewage Treatment by 2033.

Thames Water undertook non-statutory public consultations from 17 October 2023 to 11 December 2023 to seek feedback on the site options for shafts and infrastructure associated with the drought resilience project. 

The new changes respond to feedback from the consultation.

The changes include switching from pipe-jacking to tunnel boring methodology to reduce visual impacts for the local community and re-directing the maintenance flow at Isleworth, which keeps the water recycling process in good working order, using existing infrastructure.

Tunnel-boring is a method of construction that occurs underground and tends to create less noise and dust than other methods.

This graphic shows the proposed plans for Thames Water's TDRA project (Credit: Thames Water)

Thames Water claim that the project is vital in protecting London's drinking water supply during periods of drought.

To provide more information to local residents Thames Water held several Community Information events across south West London, including in Kingston, which were open to the public.

However SOLAR, who has continuously opposed the TDRA project, is still not happy, even with the changed plans.

Will Flower, a volunteer of the group, told Kingston Nub News: "SOLAR remains completely against the TDRA proposal, irrespective of the revised plans.

"We will be campaigning locally to get as many residents to register their opposition to TDRA when Thames Water hosts its statutory consultation in the spring of 2025."

SOLAR's Ian McNuff spoke to the Isleworth Society last night, Thursday 10 October, and found that attendees were "shocked to hear how TDRA could mean further construction at Mogden Sewage Treatment Works".

Flower added: "Building on top of the existing storm tanks at Mogden is a very risky thing to do and would have immediate implications for thousands of people if anything went wrong."