Water firms hit with criticism for supply issues

Water supply issues plagued the UK after a rapid thaw caused multiple pipe bursts, and water companies have taken the rap for being ill-prepared. Katey Pigden reports.

An exceptionally harsh winter has given rise to some equally harsh words being dished out to water companies. If having to contend with the “Beast from the East” meeting Storm Emma wasn’t challenging enough for water companies and their customers, the subsequent rapid thaw certainly added to their woes.

And with thousands of households across Britain losing their water supply over the first weekend of March, and beyond, it’s been a case of “water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink”, to steal a line from Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Or as one national newspaper dubbed it – “Water, water everywhere except the kitchen sink”.

Supply disruptions have been experienced by households and businesses across London and the South East, as well as parts of the Midlands, Yorkshire, Scotland and Wales.

Ofwat says several water companies have “fallen well short” on their forward planning to ensure the recent adverse weather did not impact water supplies. The regulator’s new chief executive, Rachel Fletcher says the situation has been “deeply distressing” for customers.

A number of water companies appear to have fallen well short

Rachel Fletcher, chief executive, Ofwat

While she acknowledges the recent severe freeze and thaw “have undoubtedly had an impact on pipes and infrastructure”, she stresses the “weather was forecast in advance”.

“A number of water companies appear to have fallen well short on their forward planning and the quality of support and communication they’ve been providing, leaving some customers high and dry,” she says.

Fletcher insists Ofwat will take a “long, hard look” at what has happened, warning it “won’t hesitate to intervene” if it finds water companies have not had the “right structures and mechanisms in place to be resilient enough”.

Ofwat has been asked to report to the government by the end of the month with “initial lessons” about the water supply disruptions.

Speaking in parliament on 6 March environment minister Thérèse Coffey said she expects Ofwat to formally review the performance of water companies, while the government will act “decisively to address any short-comings exposed”.

“As well as problems being identified, I want to see excellent examples of practice and preparation shared across the sector,” she added.

Companies had ample time to prepare for the forecasted drop in temperature

Tony Smith, chief executive, Consumer Council for Water

Having chaired a meeting earlier that day with water company chief executives, Ofwat and Water UK, Coffey said as well as statutory compensation, water companies will want to consider how they compensate customers on a “discretionary” basis.

It’s not yet clear how much the industry will have to pay out in compensation to domestic customers. There is also likely to be a bill for disruption to businesses.

Coffey said the government has “high expectations” of water companies increasing their investment in water and sewerage networks.

Tony Smith, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, says the watchdog has experienced a “significant increase” in calls from customers impacted by the supply interruptions. “Many customers that have contacted us say the frustration and inconvenience of losing their supply has been compounded by poor communication from their water company,” he says.

“It’s an issue that we’ll be taking up directly with companies to ensure that they learn lessons and share good practice where it was evident. Companies had ample time to prepare for the forecasted drop in temperature, which wasn’t unprecedented, but some of their planning fell short of customers’ expectations.”

He adds: “Given the huge inconvenience this has caused to many customers we think the standard automatic payments are the minimum they should expect. We expect water companies to be sympathetic to customers – whether they are individuals or businesses – that have suffered extra hardship or losses and be open to considering additional compensation where appropriate.”

Ofwat says under the Guaranteed Standards Scheme customers are entitled to £20 for the first 48 hours of supply interruption and then £10 for each 24-hour period thereafter.

While there are exemptions for extreme weather events, the regulator says it would nevertheless expect companies to pay this compensation to customers. A spokesperson says: “There’s nothing stopping companies from going further and providing additional compensation or support to their affected customers, above the minimum requirements.”

Supply disruptions

Over the first weekend of the month, Thames Water, South East Water, Southern Water and Affinity Water issued a joint statement advising customers they were experiencing “exceptionally high” levels of demand for water due to multiple bursts on networks and an increase in leaks in customer properties. The companies asked their customers with water to use “as little as possible” while they get things back to normal.

Southern Water

On 7 March, Southern Water released an infographic which explained the company had seen 142 per cent more bursts compared to the previous week, while 40 per cent more leaks were reported by customers. The company said it had more than tripled the number of front line staff working to cope with the crisis.

A spokesperson for the company, says: “We’d like to say thank you to all our customers and employees who have been working together to get the taps back on. We have been working round the clock since the thaw to find and fix burst pipes on the network. We understand the problems that this interruption has caused our customers and we sincerely apologise for the disruption. All our customers across the region who experienced disruption to their water supply have been reconnected.”

The company says it will automatically compensate affected customers’ accounts. Customers who were without water for less than £12 hours will receive £25, those without water for more than 12 hours will receive £50 and those without water for more than 24 hours will receive £75.

It will also donate a £2,000 STEM-focused community grant to each school affected by the interruption and will offer the schools a class with the company’s engineers and scientists.

Thames Water

Thames Water battled to re-establish supply to around 20,000 homes and several schools in the capital, when disruption problems were most severe.

Steve Robertson, chief executive of Thames Water, says: “We are in no doubt about how distressing and inconvenient this is for everyone affected.”

While supply was still interrupted he said the team had been “working flat out around the clock to get things back to normal [with] 131 repair gangs and 144 specialist network technicians working on our network resolving the remaining problems and moving water around to where it is needed.”

The company says it “ramped up” production of water from its treatment works – 25 per cent above normal – to match the surge in demand, putting an extra 500 million litres per day into supply.

A burst main flooded Tooting in south London on the morning of 7 March, but Thames said its engineers reached the scene “very quickly” and stopped the flooding.

The company has come under criticism from the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who described the water shortages earlier in the week as “unacceptable”. He said some residents in the capital had been left without water for four days.

Khan wrote a letter to Robertson, outlining he expects “generous compensation” to be issued to those affected.

Affinity Water

An Affinity Water spokesperson, says: “We are very sorry to all those who experienced low water pressure or an interruption to their supply over the past few days and we would like to thank them for their patience.

“Like most water companies across the UK, following the recent freeze and rapid thaw, we have experienced high levels of water demand due to bursts on our network and leaks in and on customer properties.

“This rapid change in demand had a significant effect on our treated water storage, however we had anticipated this and we ensured we had operational resources on standby to deal with it.”

South East Water

South East Water apologises for the disruption caused and says it has restored water to over 40,000 properties across the south east and will be writing to customers with details about the compensation it will be paying.

Severn Trent

Customers of Severn Trent across the Midlands were affected by the “huge increase in bursts caused by the sudden thaw after the Beast from the East”.

Jaguar Land Rover and Cadbury were forced to cease production because of supply disruptions.

A spokesperson for Jaguar Land Rover told Utility Week the situation had been “played out larger in the national media” but confirmed operations went down around 3pm-4pm on Monday 5 March and were back up at 8am the next day.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Mondelez International, said Severn Trent confirmed when it was in the process of restoring water supply at the Bournville site.

The company confirmed its supply of chocolate had not been impacted as some production continued overnight and it had sufficient product in stock.

Severn Trent says it will pay compensation of £30 to any customers who were without water for more than 12 continuous hours, or for more than 15 hours of intermittent supply.

Sarah Bentley, chief customer officer, says: “We’re incredibly sorry for the disruption which was caused by a huge number of bursts that put intense pressure on our water network.

“Our teams have faced an unprecedented number of leaks since the cold weather began. While we had extra teams in place working round the clock and have hundreds of people out and about fixing bursts, we know that some customers were without water, and I really can’t apologise enough for that.”