South West Water plans for a smaller Par desalination plant in 2024

South West Water plans to deliver a smaller-than-planned desalination plant in Cornwall later in 2024.

It now plans to create a smaller desalination plant in Par using existing infrastructure to “avoid any impact on the marine environment”.

The company said this plan would give it more time to develop its application for a larger desalination plant. The plans are part of a £125m project to boost the region’s water resources.

The company said: “Focusing on the pressing need to secure resilient water supplies, South West Water will deliver a smaller plant later this year…

“This plant will be able to produce between 2.5 and 5 million liters of clean drinking water every day, when needed, and will allow more time to develop the application for a larger desalination plant.”

It added that the larger desalination plant will “replace the smaller one and reuse as much as possible of the existing infrastructure to produce up to 20 million liters of drinking water per day, as previously announced to the company”.

David Harris, Director of Drought and Resilience at South West Water, said: “Desalination is an important step in a wider program of work we are delivering to ensure resilient supplies in our region in the face of a changing climate.”

“Taking more time to fully understand this environment will allow us to improve our proposals and make sure we are doing everything we can to minimize any impact we have on marine habitats. We have developed our plans to be consistent with other development proposals. for the area.”

South West Water said it was “working in consultation with stakeholders and regulators to complete further environmental studies to support the planning application for the second phase”.

He said further public meetings with residents will be held later in 2024.