Sewage will be turned into drinking water under plans unveiled on Monday (May 20).

Southern Water has released plans to recycle waste water and build a desalination plant to secure supplies over the next 25 years as Sussex faces a growing number of droughts.

Water recycling involves putting treated and cleaned waste water back into rivers upstream, so the water can be taken out further downstream and treated to produce drinking water.

Currently, this treated waste water just runs out to sea.

The firm also plans to use water desalination, which involves treating sea water to drinking water standards.

A new plant could be built on the Arun at Ford, to turn the waste water into drinking water.

Meyrick Gough, water strategy manager, said: “During the past 12 months we have experienced both drought and floods and the Met Office is warning there may be more extremes of weather in the future.

“As our current water sources rely on rain during the winter to provide supplies for the rest of the year, it’s vital we start planning now to meet these extremes and the challenges ahead.

“We engaged with more than 4,000 of our customers as we developed this plan to find out what they wanted and the type of schemes they wanted to see in the future.

“It was very clear they wanted a secure, reliable water supply which would not run out and they supported new schemes such as water re-use which would stand up to long-term droughts in the future.”

The report claims reusing water creates a reliable water supply in periods of drought, and extra water in the environment which would otherwise just run out to sea.

Southern Water estimates that carbon emissions will go from an average of 213 tonnes per day in 2012 to 225 tonnes per day by 2040 as a result of the new treatment centres.

The plans – which will cost around £88.7m – will mean customers will pay roughly £13.10 each during the next 25 years.

The plans were published yesterday for a 12-week public consultation.

View the document at www.swhaveyoursay.co.uk/wrmp.