Upper Derwent Valley Reservoir Expansion
Working with Yorkshire Water, we're looking at ways of expanding the reservoir capacity.
Making sure we have enough water for the future
As required by legislation, Severn Trent is exploring a huge range of long term options to meet water demand from 2025 and beyond.
As a nation, we are already seeing the effects of climate change, population growth (a further 12 million people are expected to be living in the UK by 2050) and incoming environmental restrictions, and we really need to look at how we can supply our customers with the water that they need for the future.
We’re already delivering on our current plans to reduce demand and tackle burst pipes, and we’re going to be going even further by reducing leakage by 50% by 2045 and helping our customers to reduce their water usage to 110l/p/d by 2050.
Looking at options for expanding the UDV reservoirs
The scheme for expanding the reservoir at UDV is just one of a number of options across England and Wales being looked at and it’s still at the very earliest stage. There is no guarantee that any of the schemes will be taken forward at this stage, and we are just exploring what might be possible.
Regulators for the water industry – Ofwat, Rapid and the Environment Agency ultimately decide which, if any, of the proposed schemes for England and Wales are feasible and should be taken forward.
We are looking at the engineering and environmental impacts and benefits of raising the height of one or more of the Upper Derwent Valley (UDV) dams - Ladybower, Derwent and Howden - as well as the option of creating a new reservoir.
At the moment we are just seeing what is possible from an engineering point of view and what impact on the local area any such scheme would have.
We’re also looking at the benefits that could be brought to the area as a result of any scheme, potentially such as:
If the scheme was deemed at all possible, the timescales for this actually happening could be decades away – nothing would happen any time soon, if at all.
Taking everyone’s views into consideration
We understand that this will be worrying for a lot of people, not least the local community and we absolutely understand the strong feelings around the suggestion of a possible scheme here. This is a very important area environmentally as well as being a very beautiful place to live and having a huge historic significance and we are very aware of that and will be taking all of that into consideration when looking at possible plans.
We are absolutely committed to continue talking to all parties, whether that be stakeholders, regulators and customers about their thoughts and questions, and all views will be taken into account.
However, just to reiterate, this scheme is in no way definite to go ahead at this point – it is just investigatory work that we are required to carry out so that we can plan where the drinking water will come from to make sure we can supply all of our customers for decades to come.
If you have any questions then please contact us at: udvreenquiries@severntrent.co.uk