Northern Ireland Water
Northern Ireland Water Limited (Irish: Uisce Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: Norlin Airlan Wattèr) is a water company in Northern Ireland. Formerly an executive agency (the Northern Ireland Water Service) within Northern Ireland's former Department for Regional Development, it became a government-owned company on 1 April 2007. The company provides 625 million litres of clean water a day for almost 1.7 million people as well as treating 134 million m3 of wastewater every year, and has approximately 1,400 staff. It is responsible for 26,500 km of watermains and 14,500 km of sewerage mains, as well as 47 water treatment works and 918 wastewater treatment works. In 2005, the Water Service had an annual budget of £302 million and fixed assets of £4.9 billion.
History
Prior to 1973, water and sewerage services in Northern Ireland outside Belfast were the responsibility of local councils. Within the capital, the Belfast Water Commissioners were responsible. The Water Commissioners' building in the city centre is a landmark, currently occupied by retailer Marks and Spencer. In 1973, responsibility for providing these services was transferred to Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland). Within the Department, a new Water Executive was responsible for the management and administration of water and sewerage services.
When water and sewer companies were privatized in England and Wales in 1989, these services remained public in Northern Ireland and in Scotland.
In 1996, the Water Executive became an executive agency and was rebranded as the Northern Ireland Water Service and, in 1999, responsibility for water transferred to the Department for Regional Development.
For decades domestic water and sewer services in Northern Ireland have been provided without charges to customers. Only non-residential customers received water bills and had water meters. However, in December 2002 it was announced that Northern Ireland’s water and sewerage services would become self-financing. This was followed by two years of extensive consultations on water reforms, with the aim of introducing meters for new houses as well as water and sewer charges for all domestic customers.[1] The announcement of the establishment of a state-owned company was made by Minister of State John Spellar in August 2004. The water charges plan was included in the Water and Sewerage Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006, introduced by then secretary of state Peter Hain. In parallel, Northern Ireland Water Limited was created in April 2007. An anti-water charges campaign in 2007 resulted in the plans for water charges to be abandoned. Later, all major parties in Northern Ireland claimed to have had a leading role in the anti-water charges movement.[2]
In 2007 a system of economic regulation had been set up similar to the existing system in England and Wales where Ofwat regulates the water sector. The Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation was appointed to carry out this role. Performance benchmarking by the regulator showed that there was a "performance gap" with England and Wales concerning drinking water quality, wastewater quality, leakage, customer service and efficiency. The Department pf Regional Development attributed this gap to under-investment, the absence of charges and historically limited operational independence in Northern Ireland, while criticizing the benchmarking methodology "produced a distorted picture due to underlying factors such as the size of the mains network and the stage of transformation of NI Water compared to English and Welsh companies." In 2010 the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland issued a report noting that Northern Ireland receives three quarters of its budget from the government's Department for Regional Development and confirming that the "performance gap" with England and Wales persisted.[3]
2010-2011 water shortages
In late December 2010, Northern Ireland Water blamed historic underinvestment and a rapid thaw, after a period of snow and record low temperatures, for causing an unprecedented number of burst pipes in the system, which left around 56,000 households in around 80 towns and villages without water — some for up to 12 days.[4] It later transpired that over 80% of the water loss was due to leakage on the consumer network and not the N.I Water network as was previously thought.
The situation received significant attention in the United Kingdom press, and the Northern Ireland Assembly had to seek assistance from the Scottish Government to provide around 160,000 litres of bottled water over the New Year period.[5] During the shortage, Northern Ireland Water pumped an additional 250 million litres of water per day into the system, most of which was lost through leaks. This was an increase of 40%, bringing the total daily output to 850 million litres of water per day.[6]
Northern Ireland Water's interim chairman, Padraic White, described the company's response to the crisis as unsatisfactory, "particularly in terms of conveying information to people".[7] Laurence MacKenzie, Northern Ireland Water's chief executive, resigned on 5 January 2011 following criticism of his handling of the crisis.[8]
Major reservoirs and treatment works
- Silent Valley Reservoir
- Lough Neagh
- Ben Crom Reservoir
- Spelga Dam and Reservoir
- Dunore Point
See also
References
- ↑ "Water Affordability under the Water Reform Proposals" (PDF). School of Sociology and Social Policy, Queen’s University, Belfast. September 2005. p. 2. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
- ↑ "Water charges: North has lessons for campaigners". The Irish Times. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
- ↑ "Measuring the Performance of NI Water" (PDF). Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland. 16 June 2010. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12094518
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12091028
- ↑ http://www.niwater.com/niwnews.asp
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12088872
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12125850