An international partnership, named WRC : Water Resilient Cities, between South West Water, Plymouth City Council, Stad Mechelen, VIVES Noord, city of Bruges, Waterwegen en Zeekanaal NV, Boulogne-sur-Mer Développement Côte d’Opale, Syndicat mixte pour le schema d’aménagement et de gestion des eaux du Boulonnais (SYMSAGEB), Gemeente Middelburg, Green Blue Urban Ltd, Vives Zuid, Ville d’Outreau and Commune de Condette has received a €4.6 million funding boost.

South West Water will receive a share of the European funding to support a SuDS Demonstration Project in the centre of Plymouth which will remove surface water flows from the combined sewer.

The WRC partnership was awarded the grant by the Interreg 2 Seas programme, which promotes cross border cooperation between the coastal regions of France, England, Belgium and the Netherlands. The aim of the project is to improve the ecosystem-based capacity of 2 Seas stakeholders to climate change and its associated water related effects.

The project partners will work together to improve the adaptive capacity of cities to heavy rainfall by demonstrating how SuDS can be retrofitted in public areas normally constrained by existing uses and infrastructure or historic environment protection. The project will demonstrate reduced flooding while protecting or improving amenities, biodiversity, health and wellbeing, local economies and saving public money.

South West Water is providing the Plymouth Central Integrated Urban Drainage Model and scheme design support. The results of this will help reduce the flooding and pollution risk in Plymouth, contribute to CSO spill reduction and provide system resilience.