Jersey Water has announced that, from Wednesday this week (02 November), it will be running its Desalination Plant for a period of testing. Having not operated the Plant since 2006 and as the total water in store in the reservoirs is 36.5%, the Company has taken the decision to put the Plant into operation.
This October has seen only 29% of the long term average rainfall, when October is normally the second wettest month of the year. At full capacity the Plant produces 6,000m3 of fresh water, 30% of the average daily demand for this time of year. This water is put into the system and, following treatment, is distributed to Island homes.
Managing Director, Howard Snowden said:
“At the end of September we put out a warning that, if the dry weather continued, we would need to put the Plant into operation. We have been preparing for this over the last month so, as a precaution, are going to run it for the next week, initially at 50% capacity.
“Work has begun on refilling Val de La Mare Reservoir from various streams and boreholes, as the major project to fit a watertight membrane to the Dam is complete; but we are still waiting for the significant autumn rainfall which is needed at this time of year to restock not only Val de La Mare, but all of our reservoirs, for the following year.
“Although rain is forecast over the coming week, rainfall patterns are becoming increasingly harder to predict, so we cannot take the risk of the storage capacity being further diminished. We are also asking customers to use water sensibly at this time and not waste it.”