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The East of England is facing significant challenges for water supply.
Our region is home to precious ecosystems such as chalk streams and wetlands. To help protect and restore these, we need to stop taking water from them and consider new options for supply.
We’re also one of the fastest growing regions in the country, with more than 175,000 new homes planned for the next five years. That's without considering the proposed Oxford-Cambridge Strategic Growth Corridor.
What’s more, a changing climate means that drought and hotter summers, as well as intense rainfall events, are likely to be more frequent.
Our latest Water Resources Management Plan identified that, without intervention, by 2050 we'll be facing a shortfall of 593 megalitres every day. That’s the equivalent of around 1.7 million households, or around half the amount of water we put into our network currently.
That's why we're investing heavily to help keep our customers’ taps running long into the future. This includes our proposed reservoirs in the Cambridgeshire Fens and Lincolnshire; more investment into fixing leaks; and our work with the Strategic Pipeline Alliance to create a new network of interconnecting pipelines to bring more water to where it's needed.
Despite this, we will also still need new sources of water. That's where desalination comes in.
What is desalination?
Desalination takes water from the sea and turns it into drinking water and water for industry.
It is used widely across the world with over 16,000 desalination plants providing clean water in over 170 countries.
Because desalination takes water from the sea, it’s not reliant on freshwater sources, which would help reduce the impact of taking water from rivers and streams.
It’s also not affected by the seasonal changes in rainfall. With hotter, drier summers expected, desalination would provide a flexible year-round supply option.
In our region
We’re proposing two new desalination plants for our region – one in Norfolk and one in Lincolnshire.
Both projects would take water from the North Sea. This would then undergo pre-treatment, reverse osmosis, and conditioning to eventually produce water suitable for distribution to homes and businesses.
The projects are in the very early stages and we've not yet selected a site for each desalination plant. We’re currently undertaking some coastal survey work to better understand the seawater quality at our preferred locations and support the development of the project.