Dry Weather Update

Water's Worth Saving

We’re asking for your help to reduce the water you use at home and use it wisely wherever possible. There are currently no restrictions from doing anything yet. If we all start now and work together we can help to reduce the chance of a temporary usage ban (hosepipe ban) from being implemented.

How you can help

• Use water wisely and minimise any usage where you can. Follow our summer water saving tips. Small changes can make a big difference. 
• Warm weather can cause ground movement which can lead to burst pipes. If you see what you think might be a leak, you can help us out by reporting a leak and we will do our best to get it fixed as soon as we can.
• Check your toilets for leaks. If you think you might have a leak, we may be able to fix it for free. You can report it here.

The current situation in Essex and Suffolk

Due to the prolonged hot weather, the total water levels are now lower than normal and the Environment Agency has moved the region into Drought status. We're working hard to make sure we balance maintaining supplies to all our customers while also protecting the environment.

While we’re in this period of prolonged exceptionally dry weather we're asking everyone to be careful about their water use so we can keep the water flowing to all of our customers. 

What we're doing 

We're doing our best to save water too:

• We are closely monitoring and carefully managing the situation with our water resources, as reservoir levels are lower than they would normally be at this time of year, preparing for every eventuality.
• We have increased resources and are making extra investments to achieve our best-ever performance in repairing leaks, including redeploying our employees to find and fix leaks as well as deploying new technology.
• We’ve suspending planned work so we can focus our efforts on fixing leaks across the region.

Construction works for this project are now complete, you can see the results in the attached photos. The grass is already regrowing well in the field where the digger was transported to and from the site so it should be back to normal soon.

Thanks to everyone for your patience during and interest in the works. Wishing you all the best for a healthy and happy 2021.

The screens are still working well and haven’t been affected by any flooding or high water experienced in the last few weeks. During January the team have split their time between Belaugh and the site on the River Waveney near Beccles. They have successfully removed the old drum screens and have been training our Operatives to use the new systems. Next up for Belaugh are the new covers over the old drum screen chamber (inside the pumping station site boundary) and there are some minor works to complete in and around the kiosk by the river.

The new screens are fully installed, commissioned and have successfully passed through a 28 day trial period. The screens are operating really well and so far haven't experienced any heavy loading of debris so the cleaning system is only being called to operate on a timed basis, twice per day. We're really pleased with the performance and will continue to monitor it and optimise the process so it operates as infrequently as possible.

The site has now closed down for Christmas but we will be returning in January to complete the groundworks inside the compound area and remove the old drum screens from the pumping station site. The majority of site-based works should be completed by the end of February.

I wish you all a safe and happy Christmas and New Year!

The screens and infrastructure are now in place and the screens will be tested over the next few weeks while we optimise the cleaning cycle frequency. It’s the perfect time of year to be doing this, with most trees shedding their leaves now there’s plenty of debris in the water to give the screens a real test in the most trying conditions.

The attached photos are from the installation phase, you can see the mini crane used to lift the screens in and the dive team in the water carrying out the final fix. The screens themselves are totally submerged so what you can see above the water are the tops of the supporting framework and the floating boom which will maintain separation between the installation and passing river craft.

The team have worked really hard in some challenging weather conditions in the last few weeks and have taken care to smooth out any ruts caused by vehicles tracking across to the riverside site but there will be muddy patches left behind for a while in these wet conditions, please take care if you’re walking through the field. The grass should quickly return over these patches in the next growing season which will return the field to its normal condition.

We have a busy couple of weeks ahead of us with the divers coming to site late this week to install the screens into the river. There are likely to be a few more people on site than you may have previously noticed and with that in mind we'll be taking extra care to work within the government's construction guidelines for Covid-19 and keep distanced appropriately. With the additional activity you might notice a bit more noise during this period while the new screens and the wash system are being put through their paces but this will only be during normal working hours. I'll share some more photos of the site progress in my next update.

More good progress was made on site last week. The kiosk was installed first and the control equipment was placed inside on Friday. Electrical connections and testing will follow.

The infrastructure needs to be finished before the eel screens can be installed but if progress continues to remain on track the screens should be going in at the end of this month or early October. That activity will be weather-dependant as it will involve a dive team working in the river.

Feedback on the recent archaeological investigations has been received and it appears to be most likely that the flint wall was part of an old drainage wind pump, as the historical records suggested, although no dating material was recovered during the investigation to provide solid proof. Historic maps of 1879 and 1881 show a wind pump slightly to the east of the location of the wall but close enough that it may have been directly associated. The drainage pump did not feature on the 1905 OS map so it had likely disappeared long before the modern intake was created (approx. 1960s). The original Mill was probably similar to the Boardman's Drainage Pump, details of which can be viewed on Wikipedia at the address below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardman%27s_Windmill

The archaeologists are still working on their final report so I'll feedback on that once we receive it.

We've continued with the civils works on site, the piling went well and the steel framework to support the new kiosk is being manufactured so will be delivered to site soon. The same team are working on a related project on the River Waveney in Suffolk so across the two sites they've made really good progress.

The attached pictures show the recent piling activity in action.

We haven't had the full report back from the archaeologists yet but Norfolk County Council have reviewed it and given us the green light to continue with the piling works next week. The piles have been re-sited so they won't interfere with the flint wall in any way. The piling is now planned for Thursday 16th and Friday 17th.

This week the team have continued on grounds preparation works and installing some ducting. They had a fabulous view of the river today with the sun perfectly placed for a mirror effect. There are definitely worse places to work!