Hitchin & Harpenden Member of Parliament Bim Afolami MP has praised a new £8.5m investment from Affinity Water, which will deliver a new reservoir in the village of Preston in his constituency.
The reservoir will help improve the resilience of local water supplies by providing an additional 20 million litres of storage. This will allow Affinity to import and distribute more water from Grafham Reservoir in Cambridgeshire helping to reduce the amount of water abstracted from Hertfordshire’s chalk aquifer and helping to protect local chalk streams.
Bim Afolami MP said,
“Protecting our chalk streams and ensuring that we have sufficient and sustainable local water supplies are vitally important. That’s why I welcome Affinity Water’s £8.5m investment in the future of our local communities with this new service reservoir in Preston – delivering a huge new store of water here locally in an environmentally-friendly way.
“I look forward to seeing the benefits that this project will bring for local people and our local environment – and I will be holding Affinity Water to account to ensure that we continue to protect our chalk streams and waterways.”
Mr Afolami has long been a vocal supporter of the conservation and enhancement of local chalk streams. He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Chalk Streams and sat on the Environment Bill Committee, which oversaw the introduction of new measures to protect chalk streams.
The Hitchin & Harpenden constituency contains a significant proportion of the world’s chalk streams, including the Hiz, Oughton, Purwell, Mimram, Lea and Ver.
Ellie Powers, Head of Water Resources and Environment at Affinity Water said,
“We’re extremely proud to be constructing a new service reservoir near Preston which will help to ensure the resilience of water supplies to customers.
“It will also help enable us to import more water from Grafham Water reservoir and ensure that less water is taken from the region’s chalk aquifer.
“Our region is home to around 10 per cent of the UK’s rare chalk streams and our current WRMP roadmap is working towards achieving a reliable, resilient, sustainable, efficient and affordable water supply to customers between 2025 and 2075, whilst taking care of the local environment.
“Our scheme in Preston will help build resilience and help leave more water in the environment to support our local chalk streams.”
