At a meeting with Hampshire Local Authority Leaders and MPs last month, I raised the serious concerns about the ongoing issues at Portswood Wastewater Treatment Works. These problems—ranging from frequent spills into the River Itchen to persistent odors—are unacceptable, and I’ve been pressing Southern Water for urgent action. As promised in a previous post here is the update from Southern Water regarding investment into Portswood.

💧 Southern Water’s Plans:
Southern Water has announced an investment of over £8 million to upgrade the Portswood site, which treats over 15 million litres of sewage daily—and even more during heavy rain. These improvement works aim to reduce spills into the River Itchen by 50%, improve odour control, and protect our local Atlantic salmon population.

🌦️ What’s included?

• A new 2,000m³ storm tank to expand storage capacity and reduce spill by 50%.
• Upgraded odour control systems, including equipment to add ferric to incoming sewage, reducing hydrogen sulphide levels that cause strong smells.

The storm tank improvement is scheduled to be completed by summer 2025. While Southern Water claims odour complaints have halved, the persistent smells remain a major disruption to daily life.

🏗️ What happens next?
Southern Water must deliver a resolution on par with the improvements seen at the Woolston Treatment Site, which has brought significant relief to local residents. I’ll be pushing for similar outcomes at Portswood to ensure the community receives the quality of life they deserve. Here are my next steps from the update:

• Southern Water has invited me to visit the site, and I’ll be accepting the invitation to inspect their progress and raise your concerns directly.
• I am awaiting a meeting with Southern Water’s CEO to demand stronger accountability and faster action.
• I’m also arranging a meeting with the Environment Agency to ensure these upgrades deliver meaningful environmental benefits and align with community needs.
• Additionally, there’s another meeting with Hampshire Local Authority Leaders and MPs coming up, where I will continue to push for better solutions and hold Southern Water to account.

Residents deserve clean water and air—not just promises. I’ll continue to push Southern Water to act faster and do more to fix these long-standing problems.