Investing in your drinking water
The provision of safe, reliable drinking water that has the trust of our consumers is a key priority water for us. In our Strategic Direction Statement, our Key Strategic Intention (KSI) 1 is to provide a continuous supply of quality water. Our customers tell us that this is a high priority for them.
To secure improvements in drinking water quality and reliability of supplies we have committed to an investment programme spanning the five year period from 2005 to 2010. During this period we are investing £1015m in our clean water assets which include water treatment works and water mains.
Our programme includes improvements at 41 sites which will secure compliance with all European and National drinking water standards whilst also improving customer perception of the quality of their drinking water supplies.
We are on track to deliver our programme and have completed specific water quality-based improvements at 41 sites. Up to March 2009, we have also replaced 50,000 lead communication pipes.
We are also looking at improving taste, appearance and hardness levels in areas where our customers have told us this is a specific problem. Whilst these problems are localised, they are of great importance to people who are affected. We have progressed schemes at three sites to improve the taste odour of the supply to 430,000 customers and schemes at two other sites to reduce hardness levels in the water supplied to 28,000 customers.
Despite our very high levels of compliance with drinking water standards we know that there are occasions when customers may experience discoloured water. This can be due to changes in the direction of water flow in the mains as we carry out work on our distribution system. Even though normal supplies would only be affected for a very short time, it is an area where we want to do better.
To improve our performance, we have an extensive programme of targeted mains cleaning to remove deposits which can give rise to discolouration. We have cleaned over 6,000km of distribution mains during the 5 year period.
We will plan and invest appropriately to ensure that we have enough water to meet demand.. In May 2008 we published our Draft Water Resources Management Plan and invited comments on our proposed 25 year investment strategy for maintaining the balance between the supply and demand for water in our region.
In February 2009 we published our Statement of Response to the comments received from our stakeholders during the public consultation period. Our Statement of Response explains how stakeholders' views have helped to shape our 25 year strategy, and sets out any changes we have made to our draft plan as a result. Our final Water Resources Management Plan is due to be published later this summer.