University plans world’s deepest swimming pool

IN the midst of the current roasting Spanish heatwave, the world’s deepest swimming pool sounds as close to heaven on Earth as possible. However, perspiring tourists and expats won’t be dipping their toes in the super pool, which is not destined to be dug into the ground on the Costas, but rather in the chillier climes of Essex.
The University of Essex in Colchester is looking to build a 50-metre deep swimming pool, which would be used to simulate outer space conditions and test human endurance.
Other research uses included developing commercial diving techniques and marine environment studies.
If the university gets the go ahead alongside its commercial partner Blue Abyss, the pool will cost £40 million (€57.4 million) to build.
The pool currently holding the title of the world’s deepest is the 42-metre diving pool in Montegrotto Terme, Italy. But neither pool is anywhere close to the deepest natural body of fresh water in the UK, where the icy waters of Loch Morar, near Lochaber in the Highlands, fill a 310 metre-deep glacial basin.
And Loch Morar doesn’t come close to matching the world’s deepest lake, Siberia’s Lake Baikal, at 1,637 metres deep, accounting for an incredible 20 per cent of the world’s unfrozen, fresh water.