As Thames Water's £500 million Teddington Direct River Abstraction (TDRA) project enters statutory consultation, there are mounting concerns not just about pipes or pumps, but about trust.

The first public consultation on 25 June in Isleworth brought a mixture of concern and confusion.

Last Monday, 16 June, over 200 people attended a meeting organised by the Teddington Society voicing opposition to the scheme, and a petition launched in 2023 has over 32,000 signatures.

The project, designed to extract water from the Thames during drought and replace it with treated sewage from Mogden, is technically ambitious and urgently framed.

Myles Rawstron-Rudd, a Thames Water project development manager, said: "We need projects like this, we need to invest now to provide that (drought) resilience in the future."

But to many residents and local campaigners, it smells. Not just of sewage, but of spin.

Rawstron-Rudd insists the plan is "vital". He highlights the tertiary water treatment technology, integration with existing infrastructure, and strict oversight by the Environment Agency.

Yet the project's critics, including campaign group Save our Lands and Rivers (SOLAR), highlight a lack of clarity and a consultation process they see as tokenistic.

"Thames Water has published thousands of pages of data about this scheme, there's no way an everyday person can get through all of this during the consultation period," Will Flower, SOLAR spokesperson, said.

Even the cost is contested.

Thames Water says the scheme will come in at just under £500 million, a figure that has already doubled since last year.

Independent analysts like SOLAR suggest it could climb above £1 billion, citing rising interest rates and the company's massive debt.

The scheme would see treated wastewater from Mogden released upstream of Teddington Weir.

A graphic of the TDRA scheme (credit: Thames Water).

"There's no way that untreated sewage can be put in this part of the river. It will be treated water under really strict guidelines with the environment agency," Rawstron-Rudd said.

But SOLAR and others are unconvinced.

"We oppose the dumping of sewage into the Thames, whether it is untreated or treated," Dr Debojyoti Das of the Kingston Green party said.

"The river is not a sewer."

Thames Water promises that the water will be treated to a higher standard, but this is not assurance enough for swimmers, rowers, and residents.

Another thorn for campaigners has been the timing. The consultation was launched on June 17 and will run until the end of August, the peak of the summer holidays.

"Why are they doing this now," asked Flower.

"Why not start in April to get maximum local engagement?"

Thames Water counters that 10 weeks is longer than the statutory minimum and highlights virtual meetings and an updated website.

But many remain unconvinced that feedback will have meaningful weight in a decision ultimately made by the Secretary of State.

Campaigners say that Thames Water is failing to consider less invasive alternatives, such as a focus on leakage, a nationwide rollout of smart meters, or better use of existing reservoirs.

Thames Water argues that they are already investing £2.5 billion in leakage over five years.

The company claims permanent impacts are minimal. But to locals, the temporary ones caused by years of construction, are anything but.

Thames Water's scheme is holding up the mirror to a bigger issue. When public services are run as private investments, how much influence does the public really have?

Flower from SOLAR's message is simple.

"The one lever we do have to influence any decision around this is to get as many people as we can to respond to this statutory consultation."

SOLAR is holding a mass action against the project this Saturday, 28 June, at 10.45am at Burnell Ave Green Space.

The consultation runs until August 26. Residents can respond online, by email, or by post.

For more information, visit Thames Water's TDRA consultation page.

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