Anglian Water announce work for eels now finished and the OVW footpath reopened May 2020

Anglian Water report that work at their Offord Intake Water Treatment Site is now complete, site cabins and equipment have been removed and the public footpath has reopened. They wish to thank the public for their co-operation throughout the scheme.

Anglian Water has now completed one of their £3.2 m investment schemes to protect endangered species. The European Eel is now classed as critically endangered after a 95% declined in population over the last 25 years.

Eels spend their early years in rivers across Europe before migrating to the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic to spawn. The spawn is then thought to use the Gulf Stream to return to our rivers, by which time they have developed into very small glass eels.

One of the reasons why the eel population is thought to have declined so rapidly in recent years is because structures in our rivers, like weirs, locks and other machinery prevents the species from completing its migration cycle in order to reproduce.

The new screens at Offord D’Arcy will stop eels from entering the abstraction intake, but the size of the mesh on the screens will also mean fish and other organisms will be protected from being drawn into the machinery.

For more information or you have any queries, please contact the Anglian Water 24-hour customer helpline on 03457 145 145 and quote reference number 55920018. Information can also be found on our ‘In Your Area’ website at www.anglianwater.co.uk/yourarea

To find out what else Anglian Water is doing for the environment follow this link: www.anglianwater.co.uk/environment