WATER company Severn Trent has announced it will invest more than £270 million on its storm overflows to improve river health in Gloucestershire.  

The firm will make the investment over a 25-year period up to 2050, as part of its plans to reduce spills from storm overflows across the county.   

A total of 102 storm overflows across Gloucestershire will undergo investment – which could range from increasing the capacity of its storage tanks to introducing green, nature-based solutions.

The company will also ensure rivers are monitored closer than ever before with all of its storm overflows equpped with monitors.

Severn Trent is now analysing around 300m pieces of data a year helping to prioritise investment.

The investment for Gloucestershire forms part of a wider £4.4bn injection into 2,400 storm overflows across the Severn Trent region, as part of the water company’s Storm Overflow Action Plan (SOAP).  

The aim is to reduce the number of spills into water courses across the county, ensuring that by 2040 no overflow will spill more than 10 times in an average year in high priority areas, and in all areas by 2045, five years ahead of government targets. 

Bob Stear, Severn Trent’s Chief Engineer said: “This is a huge long-term investment plan for Gloucestershire, improving storm overflows and bringing benefits to rivers now and during the coming years. 

 “(This) announcement marks another significant milestone in our drive to deliver real improvements in river health. 

“This is why we launched Get River Positive that has already delivered great results, despite the region having experienced seven named storms between September and December, contributing to some of the wettest months on record. 

“And we know there is still more to do, which is why this investment is so important – not just to us, but to our region’s rivers and the communities they serve.”  

A live ‘Event Duration Monitor’ map is due to be launched later this year, which will enable people to see what investment plans are taking place on all storm overflows across the region. 

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