London water supply infrastructure

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For much of London's history, private companies supplied fresh water to various parts of London, with the biggest being the New River Company.^[1] After merger and nationalization as the into the Metropolitan Water Board, and later reprivatization, their modern descendent Thames Water still runs London's water supply infrastructure.

1 Seventeenth century
2 Nineteenth century
3 Twentieth century
4 Present day
5 References
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Seventeenth century

Hugh Myddleton was the driving force behind the construction of the New River, an ambitious engineering project to being fresh water from Hertfordshire to 17th century London. After the initial project encountered financial difficulties, Myddleton helped fund the project through to completion. The New River was constructed between 1609 and 1613 (being officially opened on 29 September that year), and was originally some 38 miles (60km) long. It was not initially a financial success, and cost Myddleton substantial sums, although in 1612 he was successful in securing monetary assistance from King James I.^{[citation needed]}

The construction of London's current water distribution infrastructure dates back to the Great Fire of London in 1666, which destroyed most of the city's previous water infrastructure, most of which was made of wood and lead. ^[1] The city's water supply and distribution infrastructure has been continuously updated and upgraded since then.

[edit] Nineteenth century

Water provision in the nineteenth century was from nine private water companies each with a geographic monopoly, which provided inadequate quantities of water which was often contaminated, as was famously discovered by John Snow during the 1854 cholera epidemic. Population growth in London had been very rapid (more than doubling between 1800 and 1850) without an increase in infrastructure investment. Legislation in the mid nineteenth century gradually improved the situation; the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers was formed, water filtration was made compulsory, and water intakes on the Thames were forced to be moved above the sewage outlets.

[edit] Twentieth century

In 1904, the city's private water supply companies were nationalized, and consolidated into the Metropolitan Water Board. The Metropolitan Water Board and other local Water Boards were later combined into the Thames Water Authority, which was later privatized as Thames Water, a state-regulated private company which currently provides London's water supply.

[edit] Present day

Most of London's water still comes from the River Thames and River Lea, with the remainder being abstracted from underground sources.^[2]

Much of the water piping in London is still cast iron piping which dates back to the nineteenth century and is slowly deteriorating. This has led to widespread criticism of Thames Water for the amount of water lost to leaks in its distribution network.^[3] As of 2007, Thames Water is still in the process of a rolling program of upgrading the water supply network to use modern plastic piping.^[4]

The single largest infrastructure project in recent years has been the creation of the Thames Water Ring Main, a "backbone network" for London's water supply.^[5]