Interserve poised to build UK's first desalination plant

Thames Water is in negotiations with a UK contractor and Spanish specialist to tackle the first desalination plant to be built in the British Isles.

Thames is talking only to a joint venture of Interserve and Acciona Agua to carry out the construction and process work on the massive £200m Thames Gateway Desalination Plant planned for east London.

Construction work on an existing sewage treatment site owned by the utility company at Beckton is expected to kick off around March next year and be completed towards the end of 2009.

The plant will be the first of its kind in the UK and will be capable of providing up to 140 million litres of drinking water a day - enough for nearly one million people.

According to Thames, the plant will make the danger of future water restrictions, such as hosepipe and sprinkler bans, less likely.

Richard Aylard, Thames' director of sustainability, warned that construction of the plant would be, "technically challenging. Al-though the technology is widely used throughout the world, it will be the first time any UK company has attempted it."

But he added that Thames "has been successfully running a pilot plant to test the process".

Thames has now pledged to power the Beckton plant from 100% renewable resources, although its original planning application stipulated just 10%.

Earlier in the planning process, London's Mayor Ken Livingstone triggered a planning inquiry after encouraging the London Borough of Newham to object to the scheme on the grounds of environmental sustainability.