Monmouthshire in the south east corner of Wales covers approximately 328 square miles, with a population of 93,000. There are several rivers which flow through Monmouthshire, including the River Wye which forms part of the border between England and Wales and flows through Monmouth, and the River Usk which runs through Abergavenny and Usk, eventually reaching Newport and the Severn Estuary.
As a business, Welsh Water has 38 wastewater treatment works and 3 water treatment works, as well as 745km of sewers and 1187km of water pipes to serve this county.
Over the next five years, we will be focusing on investing for the future. This includes continuing to improve resilience in our drinking water network as well as strengthening our efforts to protect and improve the local environment.
Every five years we prepare a regulatory business plan which is submitted to Ofwat as part of the Price Review process. The plans are based on customer views and cover our performance commitments, efficiency, investments, and bills. Below are some examples of the work carried out in your area during the previous investment period 2020-2025.
Following the flooding events that occurred during Storm Dennis in February 2020 and the impact it had on the operation of Mayhill Water Treatment Works, we invested over £2 million to improve our flood defences at the site.
The work involved installing a new flood wall around the site and new flood gates along with upgrades to the site’s drainage system. This included installing a facility which connects to surface water pumps to take away rainwater in the event of a flood, ensuring the site can continue to operate efficiently and provide clean drinking water to the local area.
We have upgraded over 28km of clean water pipes in Monmouth, Redwern, New Mills, Whitebrook, Mitchel Troy, Trellech, Cwmcarvan and the surrounding areas. This has involved replacing 14.6km, cleansing 10.3km and abandoning 3.3km of water pipes. This essential work will help to improve the drinking water network and keep water flowing for these communities.
We have invested over £10 million in the community of Usk to improve the way our treatment works operates and reduce the number of spills that come from our Storm Overflow.
This has included upgrading the assets at both the Sewer Pumping Station and Wastewater Treatment Works, as well as increasing the capacity of the network that runs between the sewer pumping station and the wastewater treatment works. This will help us ensure that our sewers have enough capacity to deal with the waste that it receives and treats before safely returning it to the local environment.