London’s Drinking Water Shortages Spur Mayor to OK Desalination Plant

The new Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, repealed a legal challenge launched by the city’s former mayor and gave the go-ahead for the construction of a desalination plant last week.

Thames Water Utilities will now be allowed to continue building a plant on the north bank of the Thames River in the London Borough of Newham and begin construction of another plant in Beckton, East London.

“Today’s news is a victory for common sense,” stated Thames Water CEO David Owens in a press release. “The desalination plant is a vital part of our response to this situation, and we are committed to getting it built as quickly as possible, so it is available to provide more safe, clean drinking water to Londoners by 2010.”

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The plants are expected to provide additional clean drinking water supplies to London’s rapidly growing population, which has reached 8 million and is predicted to grow by 800,000 people by 2016.

Construction of the initial £300 million ($622 million) plant started in 2001, but environmentalists and former London mayor Ken Livingstone opposed the plan due to the high-energy-consuming nature of desalination plants. Livingstone went as far as to direct the London Borough of Newham to reject Thames Water’s application for construction, a decision which Thames Water consequently appealed and won.

Livingstone’s response to Newham’s decision was to file a law suit, which was due to reach the High Court this month but has now been thrown out with Mayor Johnson’s announcement.

To reconcile desalination plants’ large energy demands with environmental standards, Thames Water has promised to only run the plants when necessary, and to operate the plants with 100 percent renewable energy, most likely bio-diesel.

London’s waste water service is completely provided by Thames Water, which supplies about 2.7 billion liters of water each day, making it the largest water supplier in the world.

Thames Water has three regulators: the Environment Agency, the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), and The Water Services Regulation Authority (OFWAT).

Photo: Thames Water

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