The news this week that parts of the UK were suffering from drought came as no surprise to those living in the south west or east and it was closely followed by the wettest day for months! But one wet day does not change the seriousness of the long run of exceptionally dry weather.
One strand of Thames Water’s strategy to answer water shortages was to construct its £270m desalination at Beckton. In its first year the controversial Thames Water desalination plant ran for only three days – proving trials only - as there was insufficient demand to justify running this very expensive way of producing water. This must make the water produced some of the most expensive in the world!
It does sharply question whether having highly capital intensive and expensive desalination plant on standby is really the best way to tackle the growing water shortages. Water leakage in London is still around 25% and in some areas much higher still. Investment in replacing the 100 plus year old water network has increased but still the rate of replacement assumes much of the existing old pipework will last another 100 years. Other European countries have shown that achieving leakage rates of 5% is feasible albeit it would require massive investment. Would it not be better to increase investment in pipe replacement if we are to have a sustainable solution?
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