As Save Our Lands and River we submitted our official response to Thames Water’s Statutory Consultation on the Teddington Direct River Abstraction (TDRA) project – known to us as the Thames Sewage Pump.
SOLAR’s detailed response outlines why this project must be stopped. TDRA is a poor-value, ecologically damaging scheme that ignores greener, more sustainable alternatives. From Isleworth to Kingston, the environmental risks are cumulative and deeply concerning. The consultation process itself was inaccessible and misleading, structured in a way that denied the public a fair opportunity to respond. Thousands have already rejected the scheme, and we believe that number would grow significantly if more people had access to the full facts.
We are deeply concerned by Thames Water’s constant failure to address the broader impacts, on water quality, aquatic ecology, community wellbeing, and local businesses. Their chosen treatment standards fall short of European norms, and their modelling ignores the real-world risks of discharging treated sewage into a vulnerable stretch of river. The scheme threatens riverside communities, cherished green spaces like Ham Lands, and long-standing local services. This is not just a technical failure, it’s a failure to respect the people and places this scheme would affect. We urge Thames Water to scrap TDRA and properly consider the better, cleaner, and more resilient alternatives our communities deserve.