Severn Trent is working hard to deliver a range of improvements for residents across Leicestershire, with projects totalling £5.9 million currently underway and many more planned for the future.

This includes work to update the water network, improve the wastewater treatment process, and enhance flood resilience across the region.

In the last year, Severn Trent has launched a £3.5 million scheme to replace and improve 25km of clean water mains across the county and has spent a further £2.4 million on improvements to the waste network.

One project – to alleviate flooding after heavy rainfall in the village of Groby – has seen the installation of two massive new pipes to boost capacity in the local sewer network.

The pipes – each of which has a diameter of a metre – will store surface water during heavy rainfall, reducing the risk of surface flooding and preventing the system from being overwhelmed. This also helps to support the health of local waterways by cutting down on the need to use combined storm overflows (CSOs.)

Helen Purdy, Community Communications Officer at Severn Trent, said: “We’re proud of the strategic investment we’re making in our clean and wastewater networks. We want to ensure our customers continue to have an uninterrupted supply of water and that the sewage network continues to be ready to meet the challenges from a growing population and climate change. These projects will help deliver benefits to both our customers and the environment.

“Over the autumn and winter, we’ve seen a much higher number of named storm events than normal which resulted in some flooding issues for people across the county, particularly when the volume of water is greater than the capacity of our network. With nowhere for this increased rainwater to go this can lead to surface flooding. 

“Through projects like the expansion in Groby, we can store some of this excess water, mitigating the need to use CSOs or leaking back out from the network.”

This is being followed with investments of £242.4 million and £33.6 million respectively at Wanlip Sewage Treatment Works and Melton Sewage Treatment Works to increase the amount of flow they can treat and to improve river health. 

Elsewhere, the company is making improvements to four more or our smaller sewage treatment works, implementing natural solutions such as reed beds and chemical-free processes to further reduce any impact on the natural environment.

Severn Trent has announced it will invest over £520 million in 336 storm overflows across Leicestershire, improving river health in the county.  The investment, which will be delivered between now and 2050, will see a range of improvements made, ranging from increasing the capacity of storage tanks to introducing green nature-based solutions.