§ 21. Sir David Rentonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether any further progress has been made with regard to the large-scale desalination of sea water and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Denis HowellThere have been no developments in technology which give me any reason to think that desalination will make a major contribution to augmenting water resources in the United Kingdom in the foreseeable future.
§ Sir D. RentonWill the hon. Gentleman say what further research is taking place on this matter?
§ Mr. HowellThere have been a number of research programmes. The 1462 former Department of Trade and Industry withdrew after 1973–74. My departmental support in 1974–75 totalled about £60,000-odd and the ODMs came to about £30,000.
I should like to mention some of the difficulties. It was found that desalination produces water at between—it is a variable figure—two and a half and 15 times the ordinary traditional costs of producing water. The plant concerned is ugly and noisy and there is a serious effluent problem. For those reasons, I should not want to encourage too much hope of early progress.