ONCE again Britain has been descending into nature-induced paranoia.

A year ago and, to a lesser extent this year, snow virtually paralysed the country.

Now there could be a possibility of water shortages.

Desalination has been mentioned by letter writers as a cure for our perceived water ills.

The Government is looking into building a pipeline alongside the new high-speed London to Birmingham railway, which shows the urgency about this looming problem.

So which is the best way forward?

There are huge numbers of desalination plants wordwide, so it is a well-trodden route.

However, as its name implies, “desalination” involves sea water, ergo these plants will all be constructed at coastal sites. This means, of course, desalination-plant would only be viable for coastal-towns, so they wouldn’t be of any real use nationwide.

Plus, the size of plant to supply a nationwide network would be incredibly large and hugely expensive.

So the only, really viable, answer to the looming-problem, of water-shortages, is the construction of a network of pipes.

However, like our looming power-shortages, the Government will turn a blind eye until it’s too late.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge.