Smart Sewers Learn to Read the Rain in Kent

Southern Water's AI system is already cutting predicted overflow spills by more than 30% at two Whitstable sites.

25 Apr 2026

Southern Water has switched on a smart sewer system in Whitstable that reads rainfall in real time and adjusts flows before an overflow can happen. Running around the clock since launch, the artificial intelligence is expected to cut spills at the Tankerton Circus and Diamond Road sites by more than 30 percent.

Last year the same approach delivered a 32 percent average reduction in predicted spills across three combined sewer overflows. Rather than reacting after the fact, the system continuously models network conditions and shifts flow management as rain intensifies, easing pressure exactly when the network needs it most.

That intelligence sits inside a much bigger push. Southern Water is putting more than 90 million pounds into upgrading the nearby Swalecliffe Wastewater Treatment Works, having already replaced the storm outfall pipe, with inlet screen work next. Pathfinder Project Manager Jerome Corcoran called it a long term strategy attacking overflows from every angle, one already showing results for local bathing waters.

The Whitstable rollout is a small piece of something much larger. Southern Water is spending over 300 million pounds across Kent over five years, part of a 1.5 billion pound Clean Rivers and Seas Plan. Data once collected mainly for regulatory reporting is now steering automated controls directly, turning utilities from record keepers of spills into systems built to stop them before they start.