In September four trustees - Caroline, Nigel, Simon and Sue - had a day out to Edenbridge in Kent to visit SES Water's reservoir Bough Beech. The reservoir covers some 250 acres, the northern end is a nature reserve where there is a hide to view the many speices of wetland birds, including Greenshank, Green Sandpiper and Osprey. Floating islands provide nesting sites. Common Tern and Little Ringed Plover are regular visitors. The shores have great crested newts, toads and dragonflies. It is in the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natrual Beauty. There is a sailing club and an angling club which use the reservoir. The resevoir is 23m deep (75 feet), the bottom of the reservoir is 43m (140 feet) above sea level.
The Flow Zone is an interactive teaching area designed for children of all ages, and great fun for adults as well - the trustees took part in pulling of levers, knob turning and guessing how much litres it takes to fill a bath/shower/kettle.
The visit continued out at the reservoir, we crossed a bridge to the top of the valve tower, swallows love nesting under the overhanging roof, the valves allow water down into the main tunnel pipe to be taken to the treatment works.
Next we descended down a set of stairs to a large 135m pipe tunnel which took for ever to walk to the base of the valve tower where we could look up the spiral staircase to see where we had been at the top of the valve tower! This is the orginal structure which is more than 100 years old with beautifully designed engineering still fully functioning in the 21st century.
The treatment works are in a seperate area of the site. The water goes through a series of treatments including a number of settlement and filtration tanks to remove grit and sediment, cleaning processes, and a final treatment of UV light which kills any pathogens making our tap water safe to drink.
After such a stimulating educational visit, which I thoroughly recomend for both children and adults, we had a much needed pub lunch!
Schools and groups can book visits: https://seswater.co.uk/your-environment/our-education-programme
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