A RIVER which supplies thousands of Swindon homes with water has been left ‘in peril’ by rampant home building throughout the town.

The River Kennet, a chalk river, which originates at Swallowhead Spring, between Devizes and Marlborough, serves 30,000 Swindon homes with about 12 million litres of water a year as it flows from the North Wessex Downs through the Wiltshire countryside before meeting the Thames in Reading.

But campaigners say that with 30,000 more homes to be built in Swindon by 2026, other sources need to be tapped to ensure the river doesn’t disappear.

Charlotte Hitchmough, director of Action for River Kennet, said that the river, which used to be large enough for swimming, has now depleted to dangerous levels due to overuse.

She said: “There are adults we speak to now who remember swimming in the river, but you wouldn’t be able to paddle in it nowadays.

“Levels of extraction from the river has been growing to keep up with the levels of housing.

“As a result there has also been a huge fall in wildlife living in and around the river.

“In parts it has become little more than a trickle – one section above Hungerford is really suffering.

“The creatures which have suffered the most include kingfishers, water voles and brown trout.”

Mrs Hitchmough said the river was also affected because of the concrete from homes.

She added: “One of the problems with the Kennet is that along with new homes comes concrete and Tarmac, meaning that instead of water soaking into the ground and then down into the river’s aquifer (underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or gravel, sand, silt, or clay) – it simply rolls off the impermeable surfaces and is lost to the river.

“Most other rivers are replenished by water companies, but because the Kennet draws its water from the ground, water cannot be put back in.”

Mrs Hitchmough believes that because of overuse more than 3km of river has already dried up. She said that unless another solution is found more will be lost in years to come.

Her group, which is currently working on a campaign alongside World Wide Fund for Nature, is currently in talks with both the Environment Agency and Thames Water to find new sources for soon to be developed homes.

However Mrs Hitchmough said because water from the Kennet wasso cheap for water companies to extract, it would be hard to convince them to look elsewhere.

Plans for a new reservoir to be built near Abingdon, to help meet Swindon’s water needs, has been put on hold until 2020.

Upcoming plans to develop homes in and around Swindon include 4,500 homes in Wichelstowe, 12,000 in the Eastern Development Area (EDA), 2,000 homes near Tadpole Lane, 1,800 homes near Commonhead, 3,000 homes near Moredon Bridge, which will put water supplies under further pressure.