Water supplies in rural Suffolk have been given a boost following the completion of a £12.8m investment.
Essex & Suffolk Water has carried out £9.3m of upgrades to Rickinghall Water Treatment Works (WTW), complemented by a £3.5m project to create a new replacement borehole nearby, further adding resilience to existing supplies.
The investment will protect water supplies by renewing these important assets, which will benefit customers in surrounding villages by helping to protect supplies and water quality. It also reduces the need for local tanker movements to support customers’ supplies.This work is complemented by £52.1m investment work at Essex & Suffolk Water’s Barsham WTW, with completion expected by summer 2026.
This will provide improvements to the resilience and quality of drinking water for customers in the areas around Beccles, Bungay, Lowestoft and Southwold.
Mark Hopwood, who is Project Manager for both sites, said: “Completing the upgrades at Rickinghall represents a fantastic milestone in our efforts to protect water supplies for our work across Suffolk.
“Climate change, and the longer, hotter summers provide real challenges in this area, which is one of the worst affected in the country when it comes to low rainfall. However, this work provides resilience to supplies and we look forward to the additional water production and supply capabilities the upgrades at Barsham will bring when that project completes later this year.”