By Tim Greenfield Chief Reporter The advent of Government desalination plants could put a stop to the depletion of Bermuda's underground freshwater supplies.

A new mobile plant to convert seawater into drinking water is expected to come on line next year, and with the use of cheaper energy the system could take over from traditional methods of supply.

With plans to use power from burnt garbage to convert the seawater, the cost of using the $1.9 million machine is likely to be comparable to pumping out of the ground and into water trucks.

The economic factor could determine the recovery of ground water lens, which are still trying to restore levels following a drought in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Government hydro-geologist Mark Rowe said the technology would allow the production of water where it was needed around the Island.

"It will help in a severe drought, when demand is high, so it can fill up the reservoirs and the truckers,'' he said.

"The cost of desalination is becoming competitive. Maybe in the future we will be abandoning ground water and moving towards seawater.'' He said the cost of moving the water from wells, treating it and then transferring it to trucks meant that desalination was becoming a viable alternative.

Presently, the pressure is off the 400 wells that are used for Government pumping, with six months of above-average rainfall recorded.

For the year-to-date, rainfall is 63.24 inches compared to the average 55.59 inches.

The record high is 75.42 inches in 1962, and it is possible the Island could hit that, although the December average is 4.51 inches.

Mr. Rowe said the effect of the last five months of above-average rainfall has been to decrease demand for trucked water, which in turn lessens the pressure on the lens.

"That will benefit the lens but not immediately,'' he said.

It takes several months for the water to trickle down through the soil and rock into the lens. "When it gets to the lens, the lens doesn't immediately grow, it has to displace the saltwater at the bottom in order to get bigger,'' he said.