On Saturday 9 March, Zack Polanski, Green Party Deputy Leader visited the proposed site of Thames Water’s abstraction facility on the riverside near Teddington Lock to see for himself the unique and beautiful area that would be impacted. At the Burnell Avenue open area he met with local residents from North Kingston and Ham, along with members of Save Our Lands And River (SOLAR), local councillors and London Assembly Green Party candidate Chas Warlow.

 

Thames Water’s Teddington Direct River Abstraction proposal involves removing 75 million litres of water a day from the River Thames via a newly built abstraction site near the Burnell Open Space in Kingston, to connect to the existing Thames Lee Tunnel to take the water to the Lee valley for use as drinking water.

 

This water will be replaced with treated effluent from the Mogden sewage treatment works in Hounslow, brought over via a new 4.5 km long tunnel dug under the streets, parks and open spaces of Isleworth, Twickenham, Teddington, Ham and Kingston – plus the Thames between Orleans Park and Ham House. It will require eight shafts to access the pipeline including three in Ham alone. One would be next to a playground and two in Ham Lands, a Nature Reserve and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation.

 

The construction of these shafts, tunnel and extraction plant will cause untold damage to the special biodiversity, rare butterflies and wildflowers, that are found there, such as meadow saxifrage, hemlock water-dropwort, yellow vetchling, silver cinquefoil, pepperwort, bee orchid and pyramidal orchid. Other environmental concerns include increased water temperatures and a change in the salinity of the river, which will affect fish and other marine life. 

 

Thames Water say they need to replace the water with treated sewage as they’re required to maintain a specific level of water going over the weir at Teddington. However, the water will only be extracted in times of prolonged drought, that is, only every two-to-three years between July and November until 2075. 

 

Residents told Assembly Member Zack Polanski about their concerns about potential damage to the ecology of Ham Lands and questioned the need for the abstraction plans when Thames Water is losing 635 million litres of water a day through leaks. 

 

Zack Polanski said: “It was really helpful to listen to people from the community who will be affected by these plans. It’s really clear that they feel like they’re being notified rather than consulted. It’s vitally important that Thames Water actually engage with people and seek to look at alternatives that aren’t so destructive to habitat.”