Following the floods in 2000, Southern Water spent several years working to get an extra pumping station at Eastney and it is very close to being built. It was great to be invited to see it before the four huge pumps with Rolls Royce engines are installed and see the new underground chambers which will store the sewage before it gets pumped up to Havant for treatment. The new pumping station will enable an extra 9,000 litres of water to be pumped every second which should help alleviate flooding. Southern Water will also be diverting street water into a new system, at present it joins the sewage network, this will also help with flooding. Because the new pumping station is below ground, there should be no noise or vibration affecting local residents and we will be monitoring this and it will all be grassed over.

The whole construction should be finished by summer 2010 and I hope that we can all be confident that the 1 in 75 year flood is effectively dealt with.