Developing a vision for Colchester

Colchester is a location where we have strategic assets for wastewater and water supply: • The Colchester Water Recycling Centre (WRC) provides the treatment of wastewater from Colchester urban area and serves a population in excess of 140,000. Our revised draft Water Resources Management Plan for 2025-2050 identifies Colchester for a water reuse plant. This process involves treating cleaned water from Colchester Water Recycling Centre using membrane technology before discharging and storing it in Ardleigh reservoir where it will mix with river water before being abstracted and treated at the water treatment works onsite. • The Sludge Treatment Centre (STC) was built in 2014 - it is an Anglian Water designed Heating, Pasteurisation and Hydrolysis (HPH) plant, with two combined heat and power engines which give a maximum daily output of 55MWh. These are connected to two dual fuel combi boilers providing heat via steam to the STC process. The site treats indigenous sludge from the WRC along with imported liquid sludge and raw cake. The HPH process provides an enhanced bio-solids quality in the final cake product which is used as a soil enhancer on farms. • Ardleigh Reservoir is primarily required for the supply of 14 million litres of drinking water per day to 133,000 customers in the Colchester area, and therefore is a critical infrastructure asset that may require investment and infrastructure to support its future operation and management in addressing challenges such as population growth, and climate change impacts.

• Delivering sustainable economic and housing growth that is resilient to the impacts of climate change (drought and flooding) • Improving biodiversity and providing opportunities for nature recovery • Integrating zero carbon challenge across all relevant planning pathways Our Thriving East report identifies that Essex is the most populous county in our region, with almost 1.9 million people, 20% of the overall population. The Thriving Index ranks the region Anglian Water serves as England’s second most challenged area, behind London. The Thriving Index pillars of climate change, economy and society, sustainable growth, nature and environment, highlight the specific challenges faced by the diverse landscapes, businesses, and people, offering a comparison across other English regions — and highlights specific opportunities to address them. The greatest challenge identified for Essex is nature and the environment, with key characteristics of poor river water quality, unfavourable state of most SSSIs and very little outdoor space. The future outlook identifies high climate change impact in our region with the second lowest rainfall projections, the highest average temperatures in the region, and above average population increase.

• Working in partnership with stakeholders to deliver resilience for nature and communities • A location for innovation to address key challenges for existing and future communities • Becoming a net zero city/district Our Long Term Delivery Strategy provides an overview of our investment plans in water and water recycling services for Eastern England through to 2050. Our 25-year Strategic Direction Statement states what we want to achieve in terms of outcomes for the region, and our Long-Term Delivery Strategy (LTDS) determines how we will get there through a ‘core pathway’. We recognise that delivering for the long term in a sustainable way requires an adaptable, multi-layered plan. Our long term ambitions (below) continue to guide and inform us on our journey to becoming a global exemplar for a purpose-led business. • Make Eastern England resilient to the risks of drought and flooding: For Colchester this includes water reuse from Colchester WRC required to meet demand for water resources in the area from 2032 and increase our resilience to drought. Managing stormwater includes further investment in storm tanks, and investing in sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) across catchments to reduce flood risk. • Work with others to achieve significant improvement in ecological quality across our catchments: the focus is on pollution reduction, improving the health of our rivers, increasing biodiversity and enabling nature recovery (as a key enabler of Local Nature Recovery Strategy) and working in partnership to achieve these aims. The River Colne is identified for combined river support and river restoration. Through our PR24 Business Plan we have doubled our investment in nature recovery - this includes the Water Industry National Environment Programme (WINEP), but also Advanced WINEP (A-WINEP. This is our opportunity to deliver long-term environmental and social benefits above and beyond a traditional WINEP approach. We plan to do this by demonstrating an approach that maximises value by going even further for the environment through partnership working, a focus on the use of nature-based solutions, improved multi-stakeholder governance and innovative funding models. • By 2030 be a net zero business and reduce the carbon in building and maintaining our assets by 70%: This includes supporting renewable energy, process emissions, offsetting approaches, and taking a circular economy approach. Reducing methane losses at sludge treatment centres with advanced anaerobic digestion including at Colchester STC. This demonstrates that in achieving our own goals to become a net zero business, we are also contributing to the net zero ambitions for local authorities across our region. • Enable sustainable economic and housing growth in the UK's fastest growing region: through a range of measures including demand reduction for water resources (smart meter rollout, reducing per capita consumption and leakage), delivering growth commitments, multi-sector regional planning (Water Resources East), and improving bathing and shellfish water quality.