I appreciate how silly that sounds, but we all take water for granted (easy to do given the current weather).
I’m sure many of us have been to countries where drinking tap-water isn’t advised, but did you know that the water we drink here in Huntingdon was in the River Great Ouse only 6-8 hours ago?
I recently had the opportunity to visit Anglian Water’s Grafham Water Treatment Works to better understand how our water makes it from the river to our taps.
The process differs hugely across the country depending upon where the water is sourced, but here the process is hugely complex, using ozone to remove impurities, natural filtration processes and sodium hydrochlorite to disinfect it before being pumped as far afield as North London.
They hold three-quarters of a billion litres of drinking water on site and is considered part of our Critical National Infrastructure.
My thanks to Simon Banbury (the Supply Delivery Manager for Grafham WTW) and Grant Tuffs (Regional Engagement Manager at Anglian Water) for the detailed insight into processes, which have given me a number of questions to ask of the DEFRA Secretary, not least of all finding that despite the imminent high water levels in the River Great Ouse with current heavy rainfall, Anglian Water aren’t allowed to abstract (withdraw) any more water from the river to replenish the low levels in Grafham Water after the Summer. This could, even only slightly, help to mitigate some of the flooding we may see this Winter.
