Water plant opens in 'rainy London'

The first desalination plant in mainland UK was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh yesterday (June 2nd) to protect London from water shortages in case of a drought.

At the opening of the Thames Gateway Water Treatment Works, based at Beckton in east London, Thames Water's chief executive Martin Baggs stated that despite London's rainy reputation, the plant could be a very important feature during summer months.

He said: "People may wonder why we're equipping 'rainy' London with a desalination plant …. [But] water is an increasingly precious resource that we can no longer take for granted."

The £270 million plant, which is powered by renewable energy, has been designed to transform water from the River Thames into clean drinking water for up to one million Londoners, using a desalination process of reverse osmosis.

Last month, it was announced that a new disinfection system had been created in the Spanish town of Alguaire to cope with periods of heavy drought in the Catalonia region.

Posted by Joseph Hutton