Bid to turn sea into tap water

Seawater could be purified and used as tap water in London by 2007, Thames Water revealed today.

This month the company will seek permission to build a ?200million desalination plant on the banks of the Thames in Barking.

The plant will treat 150 million litres of water a day - enough to supply 900,000 customers. It will take salty tidal water direct from the Thames and turn it into drinking water using a filtration process known as reverse osmosis.

Thames Water has been testing the technology for several years and operating a pilot in Barking for more than a year. It hopes the new plant will help alleviate fears of a water shortage.

During last year's heatwave the company had to tap into its huge reserve reservoir under north London. The company says demand for water - fuelled by climate change and the increasing number of single-occupancy households - has increased by 15 per cent in 20 years.