The prospect of icebergs sailing up the Thames Estuary to keep London and the Home Counties supplied with tap water seems far-fetched but is under serious consideration by Thames Water.

It is one of the options being looked at as the South East faces the possibility of its worst drought in a century.

“We have to look at any possible alternative, including towing icebergs from the Arctic and seeding rain clouds,” Richard Aylard, of Thames Water, said at an emergency meeting of the London Assembly.

Asked what could be done to relieve supplies in the event of an emergency drought order being declared, he said: “We are looking at emergency measures involving bringing in bulk supplies by sea.

“Tankers from Scotland and Norway are something that has been looked at. If we get into an emergency situation that’s the kind of thing we would be looking at. It’s very much the last resort.

“It’s not impossible. It would be an extraordinary thing to do but we will have to look at extraordinary measures if we are in an extraordinary situation. We are looking at that now.” Transporting water by road has been considered but has been all but rejected, even if an emergency drought order was to be declared because of the scale of the shortages.

When lorries were used to transport water during severe shortages in Yorkshire in the 1990s, the number of people affected was small compared with the 13 million facing drought in the South East, 8 million of whom live in the Thames Water region.

“Bringing water around the country by road supply isn’t going to work for eight million people,” Mr Aylard told the meeting. Sea tankers would be the first choice, he said. Using icebergs to help to solve the water shortage would, he accepted, be regarded as “daft” by many people. Thames Water has not established whether icebergs from Greenland or northern Scandinavia would be the more appropriate.

Hosepipe and sprinkler bans are in place as the South East is suffering exceptionally low water supplies before summer has started.

The first drought order since 1995 takes effect in Sutton and East Surrey on May 27 and two more water companies, Southern and Mid Kent, have applied for orders. Thames Water has been told by the Environment Agency to seek one.

After a drought order comes an emergency drought order, which is imposed when standpipes and water rationing are required because of acute shortages. Only essential water use is permitted.

Mr Aylard, speaking alongside Mike Pocock, of Three Valleys Water, said that as well as icebergs and a fleet of tankers transporting water across the North Sea from Scandinavia, a national water grid has been considered, but discounted because of cost. Such a grid would allow water from well-stocked parts of the country to be piped to areas where there are shortages.

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