BUSINESS MEMO: LONDON `HIGH AND DRY'

LONDON -- The past two years have been the driest in London in 200 years, leaving some tourist boats high and dry on the River Thames while water reservoirs fall around the nation.

The persistent drought has Britain's unnerved water suppliers seriously considering building seaside desalination plants -- a method more commonly associated with the desert kingdoms of the Middle East.

Other ideas studied are recovering and cleaning contaminated water from abandoned mine shafts or even pumping water from France through the undersea Channel Tunnel.