Thames Water has completed work on its £250 million sewage treatment plant, which won the ‘Greatest Contribution to London’ award at the ICE London Civil Engineering Awards.
Martin Hoff, Thames Water’s head of major projects, said: “As a result of our investment, the site is now more sustainable and ready for the future challenges of population growth and climate change.”
Deephams processes waste from one million people and deals with more than 200,000 tonnes of wastewater each day. During periods of heavy rain this can increase to more than one million tonnes .
The changes have seen the quality of treated water returned to the River Lea, a tributary of the Thames, significantly improved and odour emissions were reduced by 99 per cent.
The company stressed that the work was completed without disruption to customers or impact on treated effluent to the environment over the three-year project.
Earlier this year Thames announced it would build its first new sewer for 15 years to improve water quality and reduce odour in the Guildford area.
The UK’s biggest water and wastewater services provider, Thames Water says that over the past 13 years, on average, it has invested £1 billion annually into improving service.