Desalination involves removing the salt from seawater to make drinking water, using a process called reverse osmosis.

In the past, desalination has not been a popular choice for providing drinking water because the process uses a lot of energy, is expensive and produces a large quantity of waste.

However, in recent years it has become a more sustainable option as technology improves and the energy requirement decreases.

Potentially, saline water could be taken from the coast, offshore waters, tidal rivers and deep groundwater and coastal aquifers to produce drinking water.

However, there are still a number of environmental factors to take into account when considering the use of desalination in the future, particularly because the process produces a large quantity of saline waste. Typically, for every 5ml/d of water produced by desalination there is 7ml/d of waste.

Southern Water is continuing to investigate the possibility of desalination and consider its suitability as a sustainable source of water for the future, but there are many other more sustainable and environmentally friendly measures to be taken first.