A £800,000 project that will help to protect the environment by halving the discharges of untreated stormwater on Dorset’s historic Jurassic Coast has been completed.
Wessex Water’s substantial investment will ensure wastewater continues to be pumped away from the villages of West Bexington, where Chesil Beach lies on the UNESCO World Heritage Site coastline, and Swyre.
The year-long scheme will reduce the number of times a nearby storm overflow operates automatically by 50 per cent. Instead, a replacement rising main sewer will increase sewer capacity and help to cope with sudden increases in water volume.
Further improvement work has also been carried out at both sites to upgrade pumps and a new rising main has been installed from the Gorselands site to a nearby discharge manhole.
A project to separate surface water from the foul sewers on Beach Road is also being planned, further reducing the use of overflows, that operate automatically to relieve the threat of overwhelmed combined sewers flooding homes and businesses following heavy rainfall.
Project manager Paul Delves said:
“The investment we have made between West Bexington and Swyre will ensure that the number of times the overflow operates automatically is reduced by 50 per cent, helping us to protect the historically important Jurassic Coast.
“This is a popular area, with Chesil Beach, the South West Coast Path that is used by lots of walkers and a coastal reed bed close by, and completing out this project will mean it continues to be protected in future years.’’
Wessex Water is investing £3 million a month to 2025 to tackle storm overflows, which automatically operate during heavy rainstorms to protect properties from flooding, preventing sewage from overflowing into streets and homes.
Since 2000, the company has invested £181 million upgrading more than 582 storm overflows. From 2022 to 2025, a further £150 million will be spent to reduce their impact on the environment.
