Wessex Water is investing more than GBP30 million to enhance the Holdenhurst water recycling centre on the outskirts of Bournemouth.
What is Wessex Water doing, and why is it needed?
Wessex Water is helping to protect the town’s popular beaches by increasing capacity and reducing the automatic operation of storm overflows. An extra nine million litres of additional storage have been added at the Holdenhurst site next to the A338 with the building of a new 65-m long storm tank, which was ready by the regulatory date of March 2025. The company have also boosted their ability to remove harmful chemicals from wastewater to ensure they protect their rivers and coastlines.
Two new chemical dosing units have been put in place at the site, including one treatment lane with 50 membranes to help with ammonia removal – the largest single-unit installation of this type in the country.
Currently, the Holdenhurst site serves a population of approximately 180,000, which increases significantly during the summer months. By adding this new equipment on site, the company will be able to ensure that the treatment of sewage keeps pace with the local population in the Bournemouth area, which is projected to grow further.
What Wessex Water have done
Construction of both the chemical removal and storage elements of the enhancement continued throughout 2024 and early 2025. The 6.5-m-deep tank can retain nine million litres of water during storms, reducing automatic discharges to the environment from storm overflows and allowing the storm water to be treated – that’s the equivalent of nearly four Olympic swimming pools.
The company have also built two chemical dosing units capable of holding 125,000 and 90,000 litres of water treatment chemicals respectively. This will enhance their ability to remove harmful chemicals, including some that are frequently found in many household products, from wastewater to ensure the company protects rivers and coastlines.
A further treatment process, featuring 50 Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) membrane units to help control suspended solids and improve treatment of the wastewater, is also the largest single-unit installation of its type in this country.
Meanwhile, all surplus sludge from the water treatment process is transferred from the Holdenhurst site to the nearby Berry Hill Bioresources Centre. A GBP 5 million 18-month enhancement of that site was also completed in the spring of 2025, seeing 750 m3 of additional sludge storage built and existing storage tanks and transfer pumps repurposed to improve the handling of sludge and minimise environmental impacts.
