Our proposed site

Through our site selection process we identified that the best performing site for the proposed reservoir is an area north of Chatteris.

When assessing the most suitable sites, this location was found to be the most appropriate for building a new reservoir, and, on balance, performed best across a range of the key factors we assessed. It also provides the potential opportunities to deliver wider benefits to the regional economy and neighbouring communities.

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Building the reservoir and its connecting infrastructure

To build the reservoir, we will excavate soil and underlying material from the site and use this to create a surrounding embankment that will contain the water in the reservoir.

In addition to the embankment, the primary infrastructure needed is:

a water treatment plant
water pumping equipment and pipelines
inlet/outlet facilities within the reservoir
other equipment for operating and maintaining the reservoir

We will provide further information on the location of this infrastructure as part of a future consultation, where you will be able to provide feedback on these proposals.

The proposed site area includes:

Pink area: area for the reservoir and its embankments.
Grey area: this is an initial wider area of land we could need for supporting infrastructure and during construction. This is also where we could include wildlife and environmental areas, spaces for leisure and recreation, education facilities and others. These are the additional developments that would help ensure the reservoir brings social and environmental benefits, alongside water supply. This area is only indicative at this stage and is subject to change following consultation, and as we develop our proposals.

During our phase one consultation, we asked for people’s views on the areas we’ve identified for the reservoir and its embankments (pink) and the area of land around it that would support additional infrastructure and measures (grey).