Privatization! $670 Million Thames Water Desal Plant Ran 5 Times Since 2010, Provided 1 Week Of London's Water Needs

London’s desalination plant has cost more than half a billion pounds since 2010 and has run only five times, delivering 7.2bn litres of drinking water, roughly seven days of London’s typical daily demand. Now Thames Water is planning a new £500m project to tackle drought in the capital. The Thames Gateway desalination plant at Beckton, built for £270m and now largely mothballed, has racked up an estimated £200m in debt interest, about £45m in idle upkeep and about £3m in operating costs, according to Thames Water figures. That puts the lifetime bill at about £518m, or about 7p for every litre the plant has ever produced, which is 28 times more than customers usually pay for their water.

EDIT

The Beckton desalination plant is not a clean fix. It is energy intensive, produces brine and discharges effluent containing chlorine, chloroform and bromoform – disinfectant byproducts – into the Thames. Other waste streams are “chemically neutralised” before being mixed with outflows from the neighbouring Beckton sewage works and released into the river. Thames Water says the plant is “not currently available” because of “reservoir safety related works”, essential maintenance and because it is awaiting drinking water inspectorate approval for new reverse-osmosis membranes.

However, according to official documents, the plant has been beset with big problems. Repeated chemical leaks have forced workers to wear protective chemical suits to enter parts of the site and Thames Water has admitted that system failures have “prevented the plant from ongoing running due to health and safety issues”.

Upgrades are under way, with the aim of getting 50m litres of water a day [Ml/d] by the end of the current five-year investment cycle and “75Ml/d during drought periods” by 2031, according to the water company’s documents. A Thames Water spokesperson said the Gateway desalination plant is designed to provide up to 5% of London’s supply “during very dry conditions”, with decisions on operation based on long-term forecasts and storage levels. Once safety works and maintenance are complete it will run “in line with our water resources management plan”.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/sep/26/500m-thames-water-desalination-plant-has-provided-just-seven-days-water-over-15-years