WORK on a £10 million revamp of a Ribble Valley water treatment plant, the largest of its type in Europe, is due for completion early next year.

The Hodder plant, near Slaidburn, supplies tens of thousands of homes from the Ribble Valley and Blackburn to the Fylde coast.

Work, which started in July 1998, included refurbishment of 147 sand pressure filters, half of which have been in place since the plant opened in 1932.

North West Water also installed new equipment to remove manganese and minimise further the risk of contamination to treated water.

Plans are being drawn up for a second major multi-million pound improvement programme at the plant which will last until 2003.

The work is part of NWW's £300 million strategy to improve water quality and reduce the risk of cryptosporidium in water supplies. The microscopic bug can cause sickness and diarrhoea in people.

NWW managing director, Bob Armstrong, said: "When our customers turn on a tap or flush the loo they don't think that behind this service is a record of investment, a further £3 billion over the next five years, and an organisation of thousands of people working around the clock every day of the year."

Hodder is the last of seven facilities in the North West to be modernised in line with an agreement with the Drinking Water Inspectorate.

The plant was built to supply water from Stocks reservoir, initially to the Fylde coast. Later the supply was extended to serve northern Blackburn, parts of the Ribble Valley and Longridge and Fulwood, near Preston.