The UK’s first large-scale desalination facility was opened today by Thames Water. The plant, which will convert seawater into drinking water for households and commercial sectors across the UK, has fueled concerns that water stress is an issue in populated areas of the country.
Although the desalination process is typically more common in places such as Australia and the Middle East, where the earth is parched, the south-east of England, where the new facility was built, receives less rainfall than Sydney and Istanbul. Thames Water invested £250m into the plant and has said that it will be used only during times of drought. The facility can supply water to one million people.
Thames Water in a protracted planning case said that London was facing an extreme risk of severe water shortages. The case was against opposition Ken Livingstone, former mayor of London. However, opponents of the plant said it will require to much energy, and called for the company to use the money to repair leaking pipes and reduce average water use per customers with better water meter equipment.
Concerns have been mounting that the company will use the plant more often than they say have been cemented by Thames Water’s deviation from its original literature. According to its initial plans to only use the plant in time of ‘drought’, the firm now says it will use it mainly in times of drought, but not exclusively.
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