About |
Thames Water is the UK's largest water and wastewater services company. Every day we supply 2,600 million litres of tap water to 8.7 million customers across London and the Thames Valley. We also recycle 2,800 million litres of sewage back to the environment for an area covering 13.8 million customers.
We carry out over 500,000 tests on our drinking water each year to ensure it meets stringent UK and European standards. For the past three years the quality of our water has been the best of all the major water companies in England and Wales.
Getting water to our customers’ tap involves thousands of people, 380 reservoirs, 100 water treatment works, 228 pumping stations and 31,000km of water mains.
We're currently replacing Victorian water mains across the capital to reduce leakage and safeguard supplies for the future. We’ve replaced over 1,300 miles of pipes, cutting leakage by 27 per cent in the last five years.
In June 2010 we opened mainland UK's first-ever desalination plant to help ensure London - which is classed as "seriously water stressed" - has a much-needed back-up supply during prolonged periods of low rainfall. The Thames Gateway Water Treatment Works will take water from the tidal River Thames to provide water for up to 400,000 households.
Our 349 sewage treatment works include Beckton, in east London, which is the largest in Europe. Several of these works create renewable energy, making us the biggest generator of 'green power' within the M25, producing 40 per cent of the UK water sector’s renewable electricity.
We’re embarking on our major London Tideway Improvements programme to prevent sewage discharges into the River Thames during heavy rainfall when the sewers reach capacity. Our improvements will significantly improve water quality in the River Thames.
Our Swindon Customer Centre handles four million enquiries a year and manages 3.5 million accounts. Our company headquarters is Clearwater Court in Reading.