A PROJECT to boost the protection of rivers from sewage discharge is to receive a major cash injection.

Protection of the environment around the New Forest will move up another gear this month as a £1.8million scheme gets under way in Ringwood.

Construction teams will move into the town’s water recycling centre on the Dorset/Hampshire border to begin seven months of improvements designed to help enhance the quality of the nearby River Avon.

The work will increase the capacity of the centre to store incoming water from sewers following heavy rainfall, buying time for its careful treatment before it is safely returned to the environment.

Wessex Water’s investment will boost the capacity to store wastewater by almost a third at the Ringwood site courtesy of a new storm tank, allowing nearly 1.5million litres of water to be retained prior to safe treatment and return to the River Avon.

Salisbury Journal: Raw sewage was emptied off the Dorset coast during the same week that MPs voted against proposals to name and shame water companies who harm animals through the use of Combined Storm Overflows (CSOs)

The work is part of Wessex Water’s £3million a month investment in tackling storm overflows. More than £150million is being spent between this year and 2025 to help complete nearly 100 projects to reduce the operation of storm overflows by a quarter.

Wessex Water project manager Kirstie Hearn said: “The Ringwood centre treats wastewater from the local population which is expected to grow in future years and by adding this extra storage we can make it more resilient during times when there are heavy storms, easing the pressure on the sewer system and reducing the occasions that overflows operate.

“The new tank will make sure we can store more of this combined rain and wastewater before treating it and returning it safely to the environment.

“We’ll also be adding more monitoring equipment at the site to ensure the standards identified by the Environment Agency are complied with as we look to further enhance the health of rivers.”

After receiving the planning application green light from New Forest District Council, the project will continue throughout the year and is expected to finish towards the end of December.