August 21, 2007, Morning Star Online - London [UK] Mayor Ken Livingstone prepared for a legal clash with the government on Tuesday over plans to build Britain's first plant to turn salt water into drinking water.
The mayor is submitting an appeal to the High Court challenging the go-ahead for Thames Water's proposed desalination plant in east London.
Mr Livingstone argued that the privateer "should be fixing more leaks rather than finding expensive ways to spend Londoners' money on making fresh water."
The government agreed to Thames Water's plans for a £200 million desalination plant following a public inquiry last year.
The plant would desalinate water from the Thames to replace that lost through Thames Water's leaky pipes and will be built on metropolitan open land near Bekton, east London.
But Mr Livingstone insisted that ministers had failed to examine the feasible alternatives to a plant put forward in his submission to the inquiry.
He argued that Thames Water could find nine times the capacity of the proposed desalination plant by 2029 if it worked to best practice in demand, supply and leakage management.
" Thames Water has the worst leakage record in the UK and the water produced by this plant won't even come close to replacing what they waste every day," Mr Livingstone said.
The Consumer Council for Water, while insisting on the need for the desalination plant to ensure "a constant and continued" supply of water for the capital, agreed that "it must be done hand in hand with Thames Water hitting their leakage targets."