Environmental group claims Portsmouth Water's activities are 'damaging' River Ems

The Friends of the Ems group is trying to protect the drought-stricken River Ems, which flows from the South Downs through Westbourne into Chichester Harbour, and has called for Portsmouth Water to be transparent about the impact its activities are having on the river where large sections of the river have dried up in this year’s summer heatwave and many fish have died.

The group claims the Ems is in its current state because Portsmouth Water pumps out too much water from the river’s underground sources.

It comes after Portsmouth Water CEO Bob Taylor last week told the Observer that Portsmouth Water does ‘not take water from the River Ems’. That followed a letter from Chichester MP Gillian Keegan to Environment Minister Steve Double urging him to take immediate action and look into the plight of the river which was ‘abstracted by Portsmouth Water’.

Now a Friends of the Ems spokesperson said the comments from the water supplier were ‘very disappointing and just muddy the waters’.

In a statement the group said: “We’ve been working hard with Mr Taylor to try to lessen his company’s impact on the river. We do appreciate his willingness to explore the issues, and we agree that part of the solution is for all of us to use water wisely.

“But his latest comments are .

“Of course the company doesn’t take water directly out of the river. We’ve never claimed that it did. But it does take huge amounts from the underground sources of the river, which means much more of it dries up in the summer than is natural.

“So much is taken that this summer, the springs supplying more than half of the river have dried up. Portsmouth Water’s original licence meant they could take a maximum of 10,000,000 litres a day, but they lobbied hard to almost triple this amount.

“Mr Taylor also points out that Portsmouth Water pumps water into the river when it gets low. But it has to do this under the terms of its licence. This top-up water is only needed because of the company’s activities in the first place. And it’s not enough to provide an acceptable flow.”

Mr Taylor told the Observer that Portsmouth Water said that because the Ems is a chalk stream and directly reliant on the level of water in the ground to support its flow parts of it would naturally dry up in dry summers and added ‘we fully accept that our activities may exacerbate this natural situation’.

He said a site at Woodmancote, which the company repurposed to put water into the River Ems, was used for public water supply until 2016 and confirmed that had it still been used for this purpose it would have needed an upgrade.

The CEO added that Portsmouth Water was working with fellow water companies to come up with a longer term water supply plan which would also help the plight of the Ems.

He said: “In order to reduce the amount of water we need to abstract from the Ems valley we first need to either reduce customer demand for that water or we need to find an alternative, sustainable, new source of water (or both).

“The proposals we will be seeking views on during the consultation of our own company plan will tackle both customer demand and create a sustainable new source of water. For demand, we will be proposing to move all our domestic customers on to water meters – because the overwhelming evidence shows that customers who pay for their water through a meter, use considerably less than those that pay a flat annual charge.

"For the new source, we are proposing a possible reconfiguration of the Havant Thicket Reservoir to allow water from there to possibly be used to supply customers in the Ems valley. This may include topping up water stored in the reservoir from other sources, but the details are still being finalised.

“The reservoir is on course to be commissioned in 2029 and the universal metering of customers could start as soon as 2025.

“The way Portsmouth Water– and our predecessor water companies and authorities – have supplied water to the populations of Westbourne, Emsworth and the surrounding areas has evolved over the last 160 plus years to be dependent upon the water in the chalk under the Downs. Finding an alternative to the water we take from the Ems valley, effectively reversing the evolution of our network, is complicated and will take time.

"We are committed to working with the community in the Ems Valley and our Regulators to do what we can to protect the health of the River Ems, whist working to find a long-term solution that satisfies everyone.