The Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation has asked for a meeting with NI Water this week to discuss the company’s performance.

“The Utility Regulator has been in regular contact with NI Water over recent days. The priority for the remainder of this week is to let NI Water manage the situation and restore customer supplies as a matter of urgency.

We have asked for a meeting with NI Water early next week to discuss the company’s performance and will decide what further actions are necessary following that meeting.”

On 23^rd December the Utility Regulator and NI Water confirmed that the Price Control for 2010 – 2013 (PC10) which determines the amount the company can invest in its water and sewerage networks over the next three years had formally been accepted. The final determination allowed for £564m of capital expenditure and £569m of operational expenditure. At the time Laurence MacKenzie, Chief Executive of NI Water commented:

“Following a detailed review of the Regulator’s proposals, the Board of NI Water has accepted the price control for the three years to 31 March 2013.

“We have been through a thorough process with the PC10 settlement representing a significant challenge for the organisation. We are confident we can meet the challenge through continuing to seek efficiencies in the way we deliver our services.

“NI Water’s priority remains the safe and efficient delivery of water and wastewater services to our customers.”

NI Water’s website describes the company as having inherited a legacy of acute underinvestment in water and sewerage systems, with a considerable gap between its own performance and the rest of the UK water industry in areas such as sewer flooding and water mains leakage as a consequence. The website states:

“All of this presents NI Water with, arguably, one of the most challenging jobs facing a company anywhere in the world - but the achievement of our objectives will result in major benefits to public health, the environment and the economy.”

Under the company’s three year Strategic Business Plan from 2007 up till March 2010 NI Water had invested some £778 million in water and wastewater infrastructure – £174 million in water treatment and storage facilities and mains improvement and £614 million in wastewater collection and treatment systems. In the longer term the company were expecting to spend over £3 billion in total by 2020. Subsequent price controls from March 2013 onwards will cover five year periods.

NI Water has come under heavy criticism for its response to the crisis and its failure to provide customers with adequate information. Calls for the company’s Chief Executive to resign have so far been resisted. However, Northern Ireland's political leaders have indicated that NI Water’s senior executives will be held to account, with Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness saying:

"There has to be accountability and we are not going to under those circumstances stand here and make excuses for a body that has so miserably failed our citizens."

Billions of pounds of investment are urgently needed to bring the network up to standard. However, given the forthcoming elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly in May, whether any of the political parties will finally bite the bullet and call for the introduction of water charges in the province remains to be seen.

“Considerable reduction” in properties without water

In its latest update NI Water has reported that the number of properties without water across the North now stands at under 500, describing this as “a considerable reduction” from the 1,000 reported on Sunday evening. In the East of the province the figure has reduced to 250 customers with a lower number in the West. NI Water is now in the process of calling out to those customers who have contacted them on more than one occasion and is urging any customers still without a water supply to contact its call centre.

The company said that there remained a considerable demand for water which appeared to be caused by leaks on customers’ private installations. NI Water has re-iterated its appeal to customers to check their premises for any damage to their own private plumbing infrastructure and to repair this as soon as possible. the Nearly 40% additional water is being wasted through leakage, compared to normal levels.

“Not only does failure to do so add to the water supply problems for other customers but we have also seen the consequences of these internal bursts at properties such as local schools where serious damage has been caused to equipment and the buildings themselves”, a spokesperson added.

Currently some 500 staff remain on the ground to isolate the water supply to customers with leaks on their properties, to repair bursts on the main water supply system which are impacting on reservoir levels and to deal with air locks in the water system. NI Water said that although an improving situation was emerging in relation to reservoir levels a limited night time curtailment of supplies was expected to continue. At the moment reservoir levels in the greater Belfast area remain low. The company said its focus was on continuing to build up water supplies in the reservoirs which supply the Belfast area.