River sewage plan moves a step closer

THAMES WATER TO LAUNCH CONSULTATION ON CONTROVERSIAL MOVE

- By CHARLOTTE LILLYWHITE

CONTROVERSIAL plans to pump treated sewage into the River Thames in south-west London are moving forward, despite a petition with more than 31,000 signatures objecting to the project.

Thames Water will launch a 10-week public consultation on its proposed sewage recycling scheme in Teddington later this month.

The scheme would see up to 75 million litres of water a day taken from the Thames above Teddington Weir, in times of drought, and transferred along a new pipeline to an existing underground tunnel.

It would then join the Lee Valley reservoirs, ready to become drinking water. This water would be replaced with highly-treated sewage from Mogden Sewage Treatment Works via a new tunnel. It comes after Environment Secretary Steve Reed approved Thames Water’s Water Resource Management Plan (WRMP) in 2024, in a move slammed as “deeply disappointing” by Lib Dem MP Munira Wilson.