Southern Water's £4m upgrades for treatment plants completed

Two wastewater treatment plants have had their capacity increased by £4m worth of improvements.

The plants - one near the village of Liss and other south east of Petersfield, East Hampshire - will now be able to produce cleaner water, according to Southern Water.

The company said the Petersfield site's capacity had nearly doubled and would be able to hold more storm water before it was treated.

Bills for Southern Water customers are expected to increase by 47% in 2025, the highest of any British supplier.

Southern Water said the works would "protect the environment and allow both sites to treat more wastewater".

New equipment installed at the sites would clean water being released by the plant to a higher standard, it added.

At Petersfield, a new tank to store wastewater had doubled the the site's capacity and would be able to hold 50,000 litres.

Pipes at the Liss treatment plant have been increased in size, adding to the "amount of flows" the site could treat.

Ben Gogan from the company said: "These schemes will mean both sites can treat more wastewater during times of heavy rainfall, which helps our work to reduce storm overflows."

In January, Southern Water awarded £540m of contracts to companies to improve how it handles sewage.

In the same month, figures from industry body Water UK showed Southern Water customers would pay an average of £703 a year from April - a 47% rise.

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