On Tuesday 17 September 2024, Thames Water announced that it will make further changes to its proposed Teddington Direct River Abstraction (TDRA) project following consultation feedback from over 2,000 people.

To help local residents to understand its changes to its TDRA project, the water and wastewater company is holding several community information events in the area this week and next, with the first event starting today, 1 October.

This first event will be held at Isleworth Public Hall, running from 2pm - 7pm.

There will also be an event in Kingston this Wednesday, 2 October, at the Double Tree by Hilton.

The Kingston event will run from 2pm-8pm and attendees can drop in whenever they like, though those attending are encouraged to register their attendance in advance.

Other Community Information Events will run as follows:

• Saturday 5 October 2024, 10am – 4pm, St Richards Church, Ham. 
• Monday 14 October 2024, 2pm– 8pm, York House, Twickenham. 

Speaking about the community information events, Leonie Dubois, Head of Engagement, told Teddington Nub News: "We want people to be absolutely clear what this project is all about.

"And we are working really hard to make sure that people understand and that we're planning for the future."

She continued: "We're really grateful for everybody that took the time to respond to that consultation, and it was really great that I got the opportunity to speak to lots of local people, understand their concerns, and then for them to fill in the formal feedback forms."

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.

At the events, Thames Water plans to provide information about its Teddington Direct River Abstraction (CRedit: Tilly O'Brien)

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.

The project is vital in protecting London's drinking water supply during periods of drought.

Proposals for the project are also outlined in the company's Water Resource Management Plan (WRMP), which recently secured government approval to publish. 

The plan outlines the company's strategy to provide a secure and sustainable water supply for the next 50 years.  

The new infrastructure project is of national significance and would safeguard the drinking water supply to millions of households and businesses across London.

Speaking about the impact of the change in direction for the project, Dubois said: "There will be no homes impacted, no business that will be impacted by that tunnel, which is really great news because we knew that communities had concerns about that.

"We've also changed the time that it's taken to build and construct the scheme. Changing the construction methodology is really important and allows us to have a shorter schedule which is great because we don't want to be building this project for longer than we need to."

Thames Water forecasts a shortfall of 1 billion litres of water per day by 2050, and it expects to be supplying an additional two million customers in London by that time, up from eight million to ten million.   

 To address the water shortage, Thames Water is also planning record investment in new infrastructure and upgrades to its water network, alongside a commitment to more than halve leakage by 2050 and roll out a further 1.1 million smart meters to customers in the next five years.  

The TDRA project would only be used during periods of drought to protect drinking water supplies. 

Water abstracted from the River Thames, upstream of Teddington Weir, would be transferred along a new connecting pipeline to an existing underground tunnel.

Water will be abstracted from the River Thames (Credit: Thames Water)

It would then join the Lee Valley reservoirs in East London, ready to become drinking water. 

 To replenish the river, highly treated recycled water, which has gone through an additional cleaning stage known as 'tertiary treatment' would then be transferred from Mogden sewage treatment works and released into the River Thames at a new discharge location upstream of Teddington Weir.

This would compensate for water taken to help protect the environment and local wildlife. 

Strict rules set by the Environment Agency would govern its operation and the project is designed to ensure there would be no untreated sewage transferred into the river. 

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

 If approved, the project could provide up to 75 million litres of water each day, sparing London's economy from the effects of a severe drought which could cost as much as £500 million a day. 

To address the public's most pressing concerns about surface-level impacts in Hounslow, Richmond and Kingston, the company announced in July 2024 that it would change the proposed construction method for its new recycled water pipeline. 

The move from pipejacking to tunnel boring significantly reduces visual impacts, as four ventilation shafts and construction compounds are removed from the project design.

This also reduces the number of traffic movements that would have been associated with the original shaft and associated compound sites. 

 As it continues to act on feedback, Thames Water has set out a solution that would remove the need to continually discharge treated water upstream of Teddington Weir.

It would instead discharge the maintenance flow, which keeps the water recycling process in good working order, at Isleworth, using existing infrastructure.

As a result of this change, treated water would only be discharged upstream of Teddington Weir when the TDRA project is in operation; on average, once every two years. 

 Dubois said: "We take feedback from communities extremely seriously and are focused on ensuring our design proposals deliver improvements every step of the way.  

 "We have a long way to go before we reach the final design stage, and there will be further opportunities for people to have their say and help shape our proposals."

She continued: "I hope local communities feel reassured that we are listening and acting on their feedback. Minimising impacts and disruption where we can, while protecting future water resources, is our absolute priority." 

Thames Water was previously questioned about its potential plans to build under people's homes in Twickenham.

The water company was also being investigated by water regulator Ofwat in August, who made suggestions for Thames Water to improve its TDRA plans.

Speaking about such criticism, Dubois said: "I think there's lots of misinformation about the scheme, but certainly around in the community and I don't think that's helpful.

"There's things that I want to be absolutely clear on that I've heard repeated and is not true."

She continued: "We will not be pumping sewage into the river at this location. That's untrue and I think we need to be really clear and allow people to understand that that's not the case.

"I also want people to understand that this is essential; we're going to run out of water. It's really serious, and I don't think people understand it."

Thames Water has robust plans in place to reduce water leakage, and the Government has pledged to support water companies to encourage customers to use less water.

However, the water company does not believe that this is enough and suggests that it must look at new ways to use water more wisely.

It said: "Abstraction, supported by water recycling, is a viable solution to the challenge we face."  

Government policy requires that Thames Water improve its resilience to extreme drought events to 1 in 200 years on average in the 2030s, and 1 in 500 years on average by 2040. 

A severe drought would have extensive economic and social impacts, potentially devastating the environment and affecting the health and quality of life of all those who live and work in the city.

Speaking about the TDRA project, Dubois, said: "This project is absolutely essential to secure London's drinking water supply. What we know is that our water resources are really under pressure.

"And we know from things like climate change, such as what we've seen over the last week or so of these extreme weather events, we know from population growth and we know from our desire to have less impact on the environment that our water resources, are simply under a lot of pressure.

"And what we are predicting is that there will be a significant deficit of drinking water into the future. So, this project is part of the answer to that, to make sure that London has enough drinking water.

Dubois explained that the extreme weather changes that the UK has experienced over the past couple of weeks is part of climate change and is bringing what the company has forecast for water drought to a reality.

"So, the scheme is absolutely essential for securing London's drinking water supply," Dubois said.

"We know that a serious drought could cost the economy across the capital £500 million a day. Now that's an impact on businesses. It's an impact on people's schools, all of that. That's huge."

Dubois said that Thames Water is trying to be "really transparent" with everyone by holding its community information events and creating videos that explain its project better.

 Find out more about the TDRA proposals and changes here or visit Teddington Direct River Abstraction (TDRA) - Thames Water Resources Management Plan (thames-wrmp.co.uk).