Most people in the South-East realise there is a water shortage problem here.

Even if it begins to rain, as it used to in my youth, water stored in reservoirs and aquifers will remain low for some time.

The long-term outlook is also rather bleak because of the enormous amount of new development in southern England and the phenomenon of global warming.

There is little sign the Government is addressing this problem seriously, as manifested by the low increase in road tax on gas-guzzlers in the recent Budget.

As a partial solution to the problem of increasing demand on fresh water, perhaps we should consider using seawater for some functions in coastal towns.

I am thinking particularly of using it to clean our streets, and perhaps a way could be found for the fire service to use it as well.

I realise there are practical problems and I have discussed this with the Environment Agency.

The main problem would be the effect salt water would have on the concrete in the sewage system since, unlike marine structures, they are not designed to cope with this.

Another problem seems to be that salt interacts with sewage to produce undesirable effects.

No doubt there are other problems but I think these could be overcome with a bit of vision and long-term thinking.

At present, seawater is used in Gibraltar for these purposes.

Perhaps we could learn from them. Some years ago I came across a seawater main in a big house in the one of the Hove avenues.

This had been installed to provide the posh people who used to live there with seawater baths without having to go down to the beach.

I believe there was a pumping station for this near Kingsway. Perhaps it is still there, together with the under-pavement mains.

I would like to know more about that phenomenon.

We could learn a lot from the Victorians, who were much cleverer than us in so many respects.

-Colin Bennett, Hove