Stormtroopers: Water sector battles through

After two significant storms wreaked havoc on the UK, river levels still remain dangerously high, raising fears of more disruption. Utility Week looks at the work water companies have undertaken so far, with teams working day and night, often in dangerous conditions, to maintain or restore water to their customers

After two chaotic weeks dominated by storms Ciara and Dennis, 200 flood warnings remain in place, suggesting the full extent of storm damage has yet to be felt.

The recriminations have already started – with furious residents and business owners criticising local councils and the Environment Agency for not being sufficiently prepared.

Meanwhile, water companies have been picking up the pieces – with staff in the worst affected areas working around the clock to restore supplies, repair broken pipes and pump flood and sewer water away from homes and businesses.

Utility Week spoke to companies in three of the worst-hit parts of the country, where collaboration and community spirit made the best of an awful scenario.

Severn Trent

Severn Trent (SVT)’s catchment area was arguably one of the worst affected parts of the country with Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire, Worcester and Gloucester all hit by rising rivers and sewers.

In Nottinghamshire the company worked with the Environment Agency and others in an area where homes were cut off for more than two days by floodwater. Tankers and pumps were deployed to move the excess water away.

Across the region more than 1,000 incidents were raised by customers, which the company has been steadily working through. One customer thanked SVT’s team on a local radio station in Shrewsbury: “They just keep everyone secure; they work their socks off and everyone who lives along here should be very glad that these guys are around.”

SVT’s Mythe Water Treatment works was fortified after the floods in 2007 and this month the defences have stood strong despite the rising River Severn.

Welsh Water

In the Valleys of South Wales, Welsh Water lost access to one of its water treatment sites after it flooded on Monday. The plant at Mayhill, Monmouth requires cleaning, sterilising and testing before it will be back on-line early next week, the company predicted.

Tankers were used extensively in the region with a fleet of 40 vehicles – including some on loan from United Utilities, Bristol, South West, Yorkshire and Severn Trent – removing water.

The tankers pumped water into the system to maintain supply to the majority of households, while bottled water was provided to customers who lost supply. Earlier in the week the company asked households to use water conservatively to ensure enough for all until the treatment works came back online.

Vulnerable customers were encouraged to sign up to the priority service register so teams could visit elderly or disabled customer and families with young children.

United Utilities

Meanwhile United Utilities has been dealing with storms for more than two weeks, after beginning preparations for Storm Ciara on Thursday 6 February when initial weather warnings were in place across the North West.

It increased available resources, including generators, fuel, water tanker drivers and bottled water provisions.  When the storm hit on the 9th, river flows increased, which washed away a 100-metre section of pipe that crossed a river.

The pipe, which crossed a riverbed at Shap, served around 8,000 homes in Eden Valley in Cumbria.

UU told Utility Week it used 45 water tankers to pump supplies directly into the water network while engineers battled to replace the damaged pipe. The company had to build 100 metres of pipework over the river on a new bridge structure. Snow and ice began to fall on Tuesday making the working conditions for staff and tankers even tougher.

Dr Martin Padley, water service director at UU, said: “The rural location and the terrible weather conditions made this a particularly challenging incident and we were very grateful for the assistance of our friends at Severn Trent and Anglian who provided additional water tankers.  All our teams have shown incredible tenacity and resilience and we remain on high alert, as we dealt with Storm Dennis at the weekend and we are now preparing the next spell of bad weather this week.”

The company set up bottled water stations and distributed around 144,000 bottles to households during the incident, which was resolved when the pipe was repaired on Wednesday afternoon, and refilled with 90 million litres of water to restore supply.

A spokesperson for UU said: “One of the biggest challenges was how to help the farming community in this very rural area.  There were around 125 farmers with cattle and sheep, all of which needed water. We set up a dedicated hotline and farmer support team and managed to get additional tankers, bowsers and bottled water out to farmers who were getting very worried about their livestock.”

Environment Agency criticism

The EA, which was blamed for not doing enough to protect homes and businesses from rising rivers, deployed more than one thousand staff to respond to Storm Dennis.

EA chair Emma Howard Boyd defended her organisation and staff from criticism but agreed with calls for longer-term plans for reacting to climate change. She said the EA’s approach included building defences, but also avoiding inappropriate development on floodplains and working with nature to slow the flow of water to ensure homes, businesses and infrastructure are built resiliently.

In a letter to the Telegraph she said: “We have seen two storms in as many weeks, both leading to record-breaking river levels, and resulting in hundreds of flooded homes. The nature of extreme weather like this means that flood defences cannot prevent flooding everywhere, all of the time. It is likely that we will see similar events, in more places across the country, due to climate change.

“We need to build climate resilience into everything we do, whether by avoiding inappropriate development in the floodplain, working with nature to slow the flow of water or building homes, businesses and infrastructure to be more flood-resilient.”