Thames water now drinkable

Millions of people will soon be able to drink clean water from the River Thames after a desalination plant opened yesterday.

Published: 8:00AM BST 03 Jun 2010
The £270m plant is the first of its kind in Britain and will turn a mixture of sea and river water into safe drinking water.

Thames Water insists that drinkers will not be able to taste the difference between it and existing tap water.

The group said the plant was built because London did not get enough rainfall and there were risks of future shortages.

The plant is situated in Beckton and is intended to act as a back-up suppy when water shortages run low during dry summers.

The plant will be powered by biodiesel largely made from cooking oil discarded by the capital’s restaurants.

Martin Baggs, Thames Water’s chief executive, said: “People may wonder why we’re equipping rainy’ London with a desalination plant. But the fact is, London isn’t as rainy as you might think — it gets about half as much rain as Sydney, and less than Dallas or Istanbul. Our existing resources — from non-tidal rivers and groundwater — simply aren’t enough to match predicted demand in London.”

There are concerns that global warming could cause severe shortages in England within 20 years.

However, environmentalists claim it is a short-sighted solution which will not provide a sustainable solution to any future water shortages.

Thames Water said it hoped it would not have to use the plant until 2012.

Yesterday, the chairman of VisitScotland said that Scotland had so much water it could export it to England if global warming caused severe droughts south of the border.