In a prosecution brought by the Drinking Water Inspectorate, Southern Water Services Ltd was fined £480,000 at Southampton Magistrate’s Court on Friday with further additional costs of £50,000 agreed out of court.

The company pleaded guilty on 14 August to the supply of water unfit for human consumption and to the use of a non-approved product. The offences related to an event where a failed operation to cap and abandon a 24 inch pipe caused discoloured water with an unpleasant taste and odour to be supplied to the Dibden Purlieu and Blackfield areas of Southampton in October 2015.

Marcus Rink, Chief Inspector of Drinking Water commented:

 ‘This prosecution was brought because of deficiencies in the company’s planning of changes to its distribution system that, in the view of District Judge Anthony Callaway, was reckless in its execution and aggravated by time pressures.

“This was a serious deviation from good practice, and without regard to the impact on consumers in the Southampton area, and warranted intervention by the Inspectorate.”

Firm establishes Compliance and Asset Resilience Directorate following lessons learnt review 

The company has now put a number of measures in place as a result of lessons learnt review which followed the incident to ensure that an event of this kind does not happen again

Since March 2017 a new company structure has been put in place which includes a Compliance and Asset Resilience Directorate, where the utility is focussed on improving performance, compliance culture and risk assessments while also making technical improvements.

The lessons learnt review identified three main areas for improvement:

• Understanding the importance of strategic mains
• Understanding the relationship between the building project and operational time constraints
• Access to relevant technical information and how any changes during projects are communicated.

Out of this came ten actions all of which have now been completed, as follows:

1. Ensuring that all water mains diversions are managed by a dedicated programme team who have overall responsibility
2. Updating operational and engineering design procedures for all strategic water mains
3. Having mandatory commissioning plans for all strategic water mains
4. Ensuring that designers use a consistent data standard from geographical information systems (GIS)
5. Further training on the project change control process for everyone working on projects – including Southern Water’s  partners
6. Making it easier for people to access to technical knowledge
7. Better assessment of whether strategic water mains diversions need specific site supervision
8. Following the requirements to ensure clearer arrangements for communication and cooperation between all teams
9. Defining site management procedures so there is a clear process to follow which provides evidence to help identify the reasons why a failure occurs (for example recording actions, taking photos)
10. Ensuring that processes are in place to enable the water company to effectively identify the root causes of an asset failure.

Southern Water has also increased the Board oversight and focus on compliance, as well as establishing the new Compliance and Asset Resilience Directorate, in order to demonstrate and help in its commitment to improving performance and relationships with regulators.

"We recognise that the standard of water that we supplied to our customers was not acceptable"

Following the court case Director of Compliance and Asset resilience Dr Alison Hoyle said:

"We sincerely apologise for and deeply regret that in October 2015 customers in the Rownhams area of Southampton experienced discoloured water and disruption to supply after a burst main at one of our sites.

“Although we received no complaints of illness following the event, we recognise that the standard of water that we supplied to our customers was not acceptable and for that we apologise unreservedly. We notified the Drinking Water Inspectorate of the event and worked with Public Health England throughout.

“The UK has very stringent recommended levels for an acceptable amount of water discoloration which, as a result of the incident, we exceeded, and for which we are sincerely sorry.”