Southern Water is continuing its major programme of works to protect homes from flooding and protect their network from the impacts of groundwater entering sewers.
Funtington, west of Chichester, will take centre stage for works to seal sewers to help keep out groundwater. This will also help reduce storm overflows in the area helping protect Chichester Harbour.
It comes as Southern Water is close to completing its work to seal sewers in East Dean, with more than a kilometre worth of sewers being sealed since July.
Both East Dean and Funtington are impacted by groundwater levels. Over the last two years, this issue has become even more acute as the impacts of the wettest 18 months since records began has led to more groundwater getting into sewers.
The work at Funtington forms part of the Bosham storm overflow reduction project, that was launched earlier this year to drive down storm overflow releases in this area.
It is hoped, that through extensive sealing of sewers in this area that the area will be better prepared during periods of rising groundwaters and it means there could be less reliance on tankers and other measures.
This technique has been trialled elsewhere and proven successful, for instance in the pan parishes area of Hampshire near Andover, sealing private and public pipes reduced the number of tankers being used by more than 85 per cent.
Joff Edevane of Southern Water’s Clean Rivers and Seas Task Force said:
“We’re delighted to start work on sealing sewers in Funtington, our programme of work in West Sussex is continuing at pace and we know that it will make a real difference in tackling the issues caused by groundwater.
“By doing this work we can help protect our network and customer’s homes for when heavy rainfall and groundwater issues arise over the coming months.”
“Customers in this area will notice an increase of activity over the coming weeks and we’re sorry for the disruption these works will cause.”
