Water supplies for North of island have been safeguarded

"Our mammoth trans-island project to future proof supplies to the north has come to a close for the year: ahead of time and on budget," Guernsey Water said. It's a seven year project and three phases have now been completed. When the project ends, it will have created a complete ring main for the island.

That acts acts rather like a motorway for the water network, maintaining an even pressure while other pipes feed from it and will particularly benefit the Vale and St Sampson's, which between them have a population of more than 18,500.  

The main is designed to shift hundreds of litres of water a second, each hour of every day and will serve the island for the next 75 years.

"We're acting now to prevent problems in the future – a responsible course of action that is far less costly than fixing problems as and when they happen. A failure of the current ring main would leave thousands without water,"  said Carl Falla, Guernsey Water's Capital Delivery Manager.

Joint project
The completion of this phase, which involved closing Rectory Hill for 12 weeks, was achieved with minimal issues and was a jointly carried out by Guernsey Water staff and contractors from Geomarine.

Guernsey Water also said that the work was crucial for preventing future pressure drops and potential water supply disruptions due to increased development on the island and, particularly, in the north of the island.

In total, the utility looks after more than 500km of water pipes and the new four-kilometre ring main is set to become one of the most important stretches of the network. A fourth phase of the investment programme begins in 2026.

• More information is available at at Guernsey Water's Ring Main website