South East Water is proposing a new reservoir, just north of the village of Broad Oak, in north Canterbury, Kent.
The proposed site is owned by South East Water and is one of very few locations in the region where a reservoir could be built, due to its unique geology and its ideal geography, in a valley right next to the River Stour.
A reservoir at Broad Oak is featured in Canterbury City Council’s emerging Local Plan and is a key, large-scale investment in South East Water’s Water Resources Management Plan 2024. You can read our Water Resources Management Plan 2024 here(opens in a new tab).
Broad Oak Water is essential for safeguarding Kent's chalk streams and adapting to climate change by reducing our reliance on groundwater. We will instead capture and store surplus surface water from rivers when flows are adequate. This stored resource can then be used at critical times to help support the availability of groundwater, which is vital for maintaining the river's baseflow.
Capturing and storing this available surplus water at the new reservoir will help to provide a resilient and sustainable water supply, as well as create new habitats, increase biodiversity and provide social benefits for the local community.
While we have achieved several significant milestones recently, including the completion of our initial Ground Investigations and the submission of our Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping Opinion last year, we are still in the early stages of the design development process.
There is a great deal of work ahead of us, and our focus over the coming stages includes:
- Ongoing design development: Refining our proposals based on technical data, surveys, regulatory guidance and feedback received
- Surveys and assessments: Continuing vital environmental, ecological and heritage surveys
- Stakeholder engagement: Listening to and collaborating with our customers and communities.
Between February and March, we held a six-week public engagement period to gather your insights on our early design proposals, with a focus on recreational and visitor amenities. Thank you to everyone who attended our events or shared feedback online, your local knowledge is now being carefully analysed and will form a Public Engagement Report to be published later this year.
While we move forward with the design, we will continue to liaise with our regulators, stakeholders, customers and communities. We plan to hold further public consultation in 2027 to present refined proposals, demonstrating how your feedback has been taken on board before we submit our planning application in 2028.
Broad Oak Water will play a key role in securing reliable, sustainable water supplies for Kent in the future. By 2050, we predict we’ll need to find at least an extra 90 million litres of water per day in Kent – that’s nearly half the amount we supply today on average.
We already operate in an area of serious water stress, which means the amount of water we need is high compared to the amount of water available. However, this challenge is becoming increasingly complex, as in the future we will also need to:
- Replace the water we take from our existing underground and river sources, in order to protect the environment and wildlife
- Supply an increasing population and the new homes being built in the area
- Offset the impacts of climate change, with hotter summers and wetter winters
- Make water supplies more resilient to drought, so extreme restrictions are less likely to happen.
Broad Oak Water is part of a balanced mix of options to make up the predicted extra 90 million litres of water needed per day in Kent, by 2050.
Once complete, Broad Oak Water will be able to supply up to 22 million litres per day and when combined with the other projects and initiatives we’re progressing below, will help us secure the extra water needed:
- Halving leakage by 2050 (compared to 2017-2018)
- Reducing demand for water with smart metering and water efficiency
- Developing a new groundwater source near Aylesford by 2026
- Developing a desalination plant at Reculver by 2044.
You can find out about all of our planned water supply upgrades happening across our water network here(opens in a new tab).
The history of a reservoir at Broad Oak is a result of a mix of local opposition, shifting political decisions, changes in UK water regulations and the evolving demand for water.
In the 1970s, Mid Kent Water proposed a reservoir at Broad Oak that was much larger than the current design. This triggered strong local opposition, leading to a public inquiry. As a result, the project was dropped in 1979.
In 1989, the water regulator Ofwat was created, with a national mission to keep household water bills as low as possible. Because water companies had to prove a reservoir was absolutely necessary compared to cheaper alternatives, Mid Kent Water decided the project wasn't vital at the time. To keep bills low, the company focused on other business priorities. While the project was revisited a few times over the years, it couldn't be justified commercially or practically.
In 2019, RAPID (Regulators’ Alliance for Progressing Infrastructure Development) was formed, a partnership between Ofwat, the Environment Agency and the Drinking Water Inspectorate. Broad Oak Water is now one of 28 major projects being progressed across the country under this initiative.
While we’ve owned the land at Broad Oak since the 1970s, there hasn’t been sufficient need for the water until more recent years. Previously, our priority has been to reduce leakage, improve water efficiency, install water meters and strengthen our network to ensure supplies. This has been the most cost effective and affordable approach for customer bills.
More recently, the need for extra water has significantly increased, particularly as we need to reduce the amount of water we currently draw from chalk streams to protect the environment. As a result, the reservoir has been selected for development in our Water Resources Management Plan 2024.
While we’ve been busy developing our proposals for Broad Oak Water, there is a great deal of work and several major milestones that we need to achieve, before arriving at an operational reservoir.
Broad Oak Water is an environmentally driven project designed to reduce our historic reliance on underground aquifers. Locally, the Great Stour is a globally rare chalk stream, one of only 200 in the world, and it relies heavily on groundwater to sustain its flow.
By building a 5 billion litre surface water reservoir, we can capture and store surplus water, allowing us to reduce groundwater pumping during dry periods. This ensures more water stays in the environment to support river health, fish migration and biodiversity.
Discover more about our Flagship Chalk Stream Strategy and ‘Roadmap to Recovery’ here(opens in a new tab).
We’ve been undertaking environmental surveys at the site since early 2024 and working closely with the Environment Agency, Natural England, Historic England and Kent Wildlife Trust. This work will inform an ‘Environmental Impact Assessment’, which we’ll submit along with our planning application.
In December 2025, we submitted our Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping Opinion to Local Planning Authorities, including Canterbury City Council, Thanet District Council and Dover District Council. All the related documents are available to view on Canterbury City Council’s planning portal. This is an important step in the planning process, it helps make sure that all the right environmental issues are identified early and properly assessed. As well as this, it also supports early design enhancements and informed decision making, enabling choices to avoid, reduce or mitigate potential issues.
We’re committed to having a positive impact on the environment and wildlife overall. As part of our design, we’re proposing:
- Creating a bypass channel and fish pass by realigning the Sarre Penn, so wildlife can continue to move freely and safely around the reservoir
- New wetland areas, which provide the perfect home for a diverse range of wildlife and help to clean water and manage flooding, in a natural way
- Improvements beyond the reservoir site, which could include:
- Improving existing structures in the watercourse that might create obstacles for fish o Restoration of watercourse and wet floodplain habitats
- Creation of woodland, grassland and hedgerow habitats.
By reducing the amount of water taken from sensitive sources like rare chalk streams, constructing the reservoir will also help to protect these unique ecosystems.
Broad Oak Water would create a new place for local communities to enjoy nature. We’re keen to understand the level of facilities that the community would like to see as we understand the need to balance visitors with wildlife.
We’ve started looking at which option might work best for the site, considering its rural setting, nearby sensitive wildlife areas, road access, neighbouring activities, operational constraints and feedback from our Stakeholder Advisory Group and recent public engagement. Right now, a medium level option seems most suitable, but we are currently looking at a range of studies to help decide what’s acceptable.
‘Abstraction’ is when you take water from a natural source like a river. For Broad Oak Water, this will require a licence from the Environment Agency. Our proposals for Broad Oak Water are currently in the early design stages as we explore potential abstraction locations along the Great Stour and Little Stour. While we have further work to do alongside the Environment Agency, our goal is to ensure that the infrastructure needed integrates sensitively into the local landscape.
Over the last two years, we have conducted extensive flow modeling to make sure we propose to only take water during times when there is sufficient flow. To protect the downstream environment, we would reduce or stop abstraction entirely when river levels are low, ensuring the ecosystem remains resilient during dry months.
The licence, if and when granted, will have a number of conditions on it to protect the environment. We would expect a flow condition, which means we wouldn’t be able to take water when the rivers get really low, for example in droughts. These trigger levels will potentially be different depending on time of year/climate conditions.
This threshold measure is based on and crucial for protecting in-river ecology, downstream users, other abstractors, and for mitigating the anticipated impacts of future climate change. This work is ongoing in liaison with the Environment Agency.
At this stage, we do not have a confirmed Minimum Residual Flow from the Environment Agency, but anticipate it will be higher than other abstractors to ensure available water for other licensed users downstream.
The final abstraction licence will be determined by the Environment Agency and will be structured according to the Environment Agency’s Stour abstraction licensing strategy. It will balance our data against the required river flow needed to support fish, macroinvertebrates, surrounding habitats, and downstream water users.
By storing surplus water in the new reservoir, we can provide a sustainable source of supply for Kent allowing us to relieve the pressure on upstream vital underground aquifers that provide the baseflow to the chalk stream. This collaborative, evidence-based approach will make sure that our long-term water security never comes at the expense of our precious local river health.
We appreciate that construction can be disruptive, so we’ll carefully consider local residents as we develop our plans and work hard to reduce disturbance as we undertake our works.
The outline planning approval will be subject to detailed Traffic Management and Construction Environmental Management Plans, which will include measures to reduce disruption, such as:
- Scheduling HGV deliveries for when the roads are less busy
- Bussing workers to the pipeline site each day, to reduce the number of vehicles movements
- Carefully planning the movement of workers and materials to minimise trips
- Limiting the size of the construction areas to reduce disruption to footpaths, residents and local roads
- Considering different construction techniques to reduce the amount of disruption
- Proposing alternating routes for construction traffic to relieve congestion
- Routing construction vehicles along main roads to divert construction traffic away from residential areas for most of their journeys
- Using other areas for parking for the construction teams and to store materials away from the working sites to reduce the number of construction vehicles travelling there
- Staggering site activities to reduce traffic
- Restricting when work can be carried out i.e. not overnight, except where all impacts can be fully mitigated
- Considering noise insulation measures.
We are committed to an open, two-way dialogue throughout the life of the project. You can stay up to date by signing up for our quarterly email newsletter here(opens in a new tab).
We have also established a Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG) with representatives from local organisations to help shape our proposals for Broad Oak Water. The group, which meets regularly, is composed of professional organisations in the fields of tourism, business, culture and heritage, environmental bodies, community groups and residents’ associations, alongside parish councils and councillors. You can find out more about the SAG, and view minutes from each meeting here(opens in a new tab).
In 2027, we will hold further public consultation with more refined proposals, ahead of submitting our outline planning application in 2028.
We know that affordability is a top priority. Given the scale of Broad Oak Water, we are constantly refining our designs and cost projections to ensure efficiency.
- Current work: The design work currently underway is already factored into existing customer bills
- Long-term sustainability: For costs related to detailed design and construction, the investment will be spread across our entire customer base over a minimum of 25 years. This ensures that individual contributions remain small and sustainable. Exact financial details will continue to be refined and agreed upon with our regulators as we progress.
Our regulator, Ofwat, decides the level of investment we can make in our network, and the total amount we can charge our customers over a five year period, so prices are fair for customers.
At South East Water, we’re investing £2.1 billion over the next five years to improve how we deliver drinking water and to make sure you can rely on a safe, secure water supply today and for years to come.
In Kent, as well as Broad Oak Water, investment is being made into a number of projects, including, but not limited to:
- £8 million investment in Canterbury(opens in a new tab)
- £39 million water treatment works near Aylesford(opens in a new tab)
- Pembury water treatment works (opens in a new tab)
- Local farmers and landowners partnerships. (opens in a new tab)
For more information on your drinking water bill, please visit here. (opens in a new tab)