Dorset underground water plan

A water company is using rock strata deep beneath the sea as a new underground reservoir. It is the first time this "confined aquifer" technique has been tried in Britain. Wessex Water wants to test how well aquifer storage and recovery works in its area in case the English climate has shifted permanently, and the low rainfall of the past two years continues.

Treated drinking water will be pumped, under pressure, down a borehole into chalk 1,000 feet deep near Wareham, Dorset during the winter - when it is in plentiful.