Financializing Desalination: Rethinking the Returns of Big Infrastructure

Alex Loftus,Hug March

doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12342

Abstract

AbstractAgainst the trend prevalent during the 1990s and 2000s, large‐scale infrastructural projects have made a comeback in the water sector. Although sometimes framed as part of a broader sustainable transition, the return of big infrastructure is a much more complicated story in which finance has played a crucial role. In the following article, we explore this encounter between finance and water infrastructure using the case of Britain's first experiment in desalination technologies, the Thames Water Desalination Plant (TWDP). On the surface, the plant appears to be a classic example of the successes of normative industrial ecology, in which sustainability challenges have been met with forward‐thinking green innovations. However, the TWDP is utterly dependent on a byzantine financial model, which has shaped Thames Water's investment strategy over the last decade. This article returns to the fundamental question of whether London ever needed a desalination plant in the first place. Deploying an urban political ecology approach, we demonstrate how the plant is simultaneously an iconic illustration of ecological modernization and a fragile example of an infrastructure‐heavy solution to the demands of financialization. Understanding the development of the TWDP requires a focus on the scalar interactions between flows of finance, waste, energy and water that are woven through the hydrosocial cycle of London.

Highlights

In 2011 Thames Water began operating Britain’s first major experiment in desalination technology, the Thames Water Desalination Plant (TWDP)
In concluding, we would like to return to the question with which we began: why build a desalination plant in London? On the one hand, if we accept the testimony of Thames Water, the answer is simple
Why not invest money in renewing meters, fixing leaks, rainwater harvesting, educational campaigns and so on? A complementary justification can be found if the project is interpreted through the lens of industrial ecology

Summary

Introduction

In 2011 Thames Water began operating Britain’s first major experiment in desalination technology, the Thames Water Desalination Plant (TWDP). In a remarkable turnaround, the plant is viewed within the industry as a tremendous success, receiving several important accolades including an award for the ‘Most Sustainable Project’ in 2009 and ‘Desalination Plant of the Year’ in 2011, both presented by the pre stigious water consultancy Global Water Intelligence (Acciona Agua, 2014). The story behind this turnaround is fascinating. Interlinking urban infrastructure in the case of the Beckton plant is reliant upon and driven by a distinct shift in the system of accumulation of which infrastructure is a part

Reworking urban metabolisms

Engineering the sustainable ideal

Households Businesses

Findings

Conclusion