4 Solar water pumps RSPB Old Hall Marshes

Descriptions

The RSPB has secured funding from the EU funded Life+ scheme to carry out works to improve the habitats found at RSPB Old Hall Marshes. RSPB Old Hall Marshes is a 465 ha area of grazing marsh, reedbed, borrowdykes, saltmarsh and intertidal mudflats located in the Blackwater Estuary, Essex. The reserve has several designations ranging from national to international. It is a National Nature Reserve (NNR), Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Protection Area (SPA), Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Ramsar. These designations have been awarded both to Old Hall Marshes and to the Blackwater and Essex Estuaries for a range of wildlife features including internationally important numbers of wintering waders and wildfowl, the range of salt marsh plant and invertebrate species, and scarce breeding bird species such as redshank and pochard. This project will see the supply and installation of four solar powered pump units, and associated pipework, and solar panels, that will be used to distribute water across the wet grassland in various locations across the reserve. This project will help achieve suitable wet conditions to benefit breeding wading birds such as lapwing and redshank, and other wetland wildlife and is part of a larger project that seeks to reduce dependence on Diesel pumps to move water around the reserve and continue the reserves journey toward a degree of climate resilience. This tender is for the supply of the Solar powered water pumps, there is a separate tender for the associated earthworks required to install the solar pump.