Thames Estuary Desalination

Three quaters of London's water supply comes from the River Thames and the River Lea. Concerns have been raised that with major new development planned for the Thames Estuary and the city being drier than both Madrid and Istanbul (per head of population), these sources will not be sufficient to meet demand.

Nevertheless the Mayor of London recently stalled plans for a Thames-side desalination plant in Newham, east London. The £200 million Thames Water project would have desalinised brackish water taken from the Thames Estuary and supplied another 150 million litres of water to consumers. The location of the plant on a tidal stretch of the River Thames was chosen because the estuarine intake water has a salinity level 75% less than normal seawater.

In a statement the Mayor said he was not convinced “that a desalination plant is a viable long-term way to ensure London has an adequate supply of water”. In response Thames Water noted that both demand for water and population are rising in London. A spokesman for the company said “our duty is to plan for the future, and we are concerned that, without new sources of water, we will be unable to meet these increasing demands” ⁽¹⁾.

References

(1) Thames Water (2005) http://www.thameswateruk.co.uk/UK/region/en_gb/content/News/News_000894.jsp?SECT=Section_Homepage_000431

(2) Mayor of London planning decisions (2004) http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/planning_decisions/2004/oct1304.jsp