Water Shortage? Rubbish. I'm sick to death of hearing of water shortages when the country is surrounded by the stuff.

Tony Blair is quick to fund wind farms, which are ugly and pretty useless, yet he refuses to fund desalination, which would solve the so-called water shortage for ever.

Alas, his henchmen refused to allow a desalination extension to the Shoreham power station despite the National Rivers Authority categorically stating in 1992 that utilising waste heat from power stations would produce cheaper water - yes, cheaper - than the present system.

His grounds for refusal were that he wouldn't grant retrospective planning for such a plant.

In other words, he is happy to pile on more houses to further aggravate the present situation and further reduce ground-soak areas for water catchment.

One company based in the South has produced a desalination plant and should be rewarded for its foresight with public money.

If we can fund monstrous propellers on stalks blighting the countryside, we can certainly afford to fund a life-saving water project which is guaranteed to work.

All the so-called water-saving schemes are simply pie in the sky.

If it doesn't rain and there is no back-up, with Prescott's plan adding to the problem, what then?

You can't save what you haven't got and if the global warming brigade are right, heaven help us.

We must desalinate and urgently. There is no viable alternative.

-Harold Parkin, Heathfield