Are NI Water Fit for Purpose?

[tbrick18]

After getting our water back on following an outage from 23rd to 28th December I'm totally peeved at NI Water. I got confilcting stories from different call centre employees, complaints from them about having to work over Christmas and finally not even able to get through to them. On the one hand they told me they only had skeleton staff over Xmas and on the other now all over the news they supposedly had extra staff on over Xmas! I was offered alternative water supply on Christmas eve and didnt get anything until boxing day, even though I offered to collect water anywhere it was available! I dont believe anything from them at this point.
I think they're badly managed and not fit for purpose. Our rates pay for them and we may get water charges added in on top of that!
Hopefully this poll will help highlight what people really think of NI Water after recent events.

[Hereiam]

Having dealt with them in the past over sewage, water connection issues they are a joke.

[Tony Baloney]

Send your complaints to Conor Murphy as ultimately they're  on his watch. A poll on here won't solve anything.

[Orior]

NI Water are doing the best they can. A root and branch change would cost millions and improve service a little, but coping with the recent bad weather would still be a struggle.

[bailestil]

Brilliant, get the finger pointing started good an early Marty.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-12088872
is there no-one our elected leaders won't blame?

Maybe Marty should walk round the corner to his Minister in charge and see where blame could be allocated.

N.Ireland Water isn't fit for purpose and judging by their press released they acknowledge that. Under-Investment, and an over-bloated civil service attitude for 30 years is enough to wreck any company.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Fit for porpoise more like 

[orangeman]

England, Scotland and Wales experienced similarly harsh weather recently.


Is there any particular reason(s) why Northern Ireland has coped so badly ( apparently ) ?.

[bailestil]

Under investment in the infrastructure for 40 years compared to other countries.

[orangeman]

Northern Ireland's deputy first minister has said he feels "absolutely let down" by NI Water's handling of a crisis in water supplies.He was speaking as 36,000 people across NI struggled to cope without water - some for 11 days.

Information is being provided on the NI Water website on when water supplies will be switched on - and cut off

Meanwhile, the Scottish government is to provide 160,000 litres of bottled water.

Martin McGuinness said people had not been given enough information as to when water would be restored."My focus is on how NI Water can do things better over the course of the next number of days," he said.

Northern Ireland Water has said an unprecedented number of leaks caused by the thaw following a long period of freezing weather have been putting "big pressure" on its systems.

Mr McGuinness said: "Our concern has to be around the difficulties experienced by elderly people and young people with very young babies," he said.

Northern Ireland Water is a government-run company and is NI's sole provider of water and sewerage services.

We had the Troubles and that has led to a level of underinvestment in the network which is now manifesting some problems for us which we're trying to deal with as fast as we can.

We're under demand from three things.

We have bursts in our own network and we're repairing those as fast as we can.

We have home usage, people are filling baths and that's something we're trying to deter because that just puts more strain on the system.

We know there are vacant premises where people are off for Christmas, we know that there are businesses that are being flooded, so we're pleading with our business customers to visit their premises, if you've got a leak get it isolated - that'll shut it off and will help to bring the reservoir levels up again.
Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy said: "The big problems have been communication and the lack of information on the ground.

"People want certainty that they are going to get accurate information as to what is happening and to get water restored."

Northern Ireland Water has warned that the disruption could continue for several more days.

Executive ministers are to hold a meeting on Thursday to discuss the crisis.

Almost 80 towns and villages across NI have been affected.

Local councils are working to supply water and offer free showers to people without a mains supply.

Belfast City Council has opened an emergency call centre - Belfast residents can call 0800 707 6965 for information on where to get water and what other assistance the council can give.

Armagh Council has drinking water available from a number of recreation and community centres as is Craigavon Council.

NI Water said an unprecedented number of leaks caused by the thaw had put "big pressure" on its systems.

The company said it was alternating supplies from reservoirs in a bid to give every area a limited supply, causing more interruptions.

Liam Mulholland, head of customer services for NI Water, said the circumstances were unusual and unprecedented.

"It is understandable that people are angry," he said.

"The level of contacts that we have had is unprecedented. In a normal day we would take about 1,000 calls. But that has risen by 600%. We are doing everything we can. We have more than 300 staff out seeking and fixing bursts."

Asked why Scotland had not experienced similar cuts to supplies, he said: "Scotland has had investment, whereas we haven't."

He also appealed to people to report burst pipes.


People queued for water at leisure centres "There is an immense drain on the system because of vacant premises," he said. "We would appeal to business owners to please check their premises."

Dame Joan Harbison, who speaks on behalf of older people, said many pensioners are struggling to cope.

"There are many older people throughout Northern Ireland who haven't access to water, who can't go to where the water is and certainly can't stand in long queues for long periods of time to actually get water," she said.

"I do think that the Public Health Agency and other health agencies need to get themselves organised to deal with what may actually become a health emergency as well as a water emergency."

Dr Peter Maguire, a doctor from Newry, has been living for eight days without water.

"This is really now a public health emergency. NI Water has been shambolic. Young families have been left without drinking water and not able to flush toilets. This is unacceptable.

"There are too many vulnerable people who are now without a water supply for over a week," he said.

"The situation is unprecedented but now it is getting out of control."

Environment Minister Edwin Poots said NI Water was not properly prepared.

"Everybody knew that whenever the thaw came that there was going to be big problems with water, so I think that there was a lack of preparation by NI Water, particularly in the issue of communication," he said.

"I think that it's limited how much they can do, the engineers, the guys on the ground, they're just going to have to work their way through all of the problems. But in terms of communicating those problems with the community, they failed and failed very miserably."

Emergency centres have been set up across Northern Ireland to supply water. Leisure centres are also open to offer free bathing facilities.

Details are available from NI Water, telephone: 08457 440088, on Ceefax and BBC News Online.

The Fire Service and the Red Cross have stepped in to help.

Worried farmers have been among dozens of people contacting the BBC about their water supply problems.

[Tony Baloney]

Under investment in the infrastructure for 40 years compared to other countries.

Nice soundbite but nothing to do with the main issue with NIW which is lack of communication.

[red hander]

Under investment in the infrastructure for 40 years compared to other countries.

Nice soundbite but nothing to do with the main issue with NIW which is lack of communication.

To be fair, if there had been the investment in infrastructure then we wouldn't be discussing the chaos in the first place as it wouldn't have happened ... for 40 years successive British governments insisted that the security budget was in addition to the infrastructure budget, a blatant lie.  The security budget was diverted from cash that would have been invested in infrastructure (a la England, Wales and Scotland), it wasn't on top of that money.  Now the chickens are coming home to roost and the latest shenanigans will be used as an excuse by right wingers to demand the introduction of water charges to replace a water system that should have been revamped years ago using money already taken from us in tax and rates. Instead that money was used to ensure Protestant farmers could have another job dressing up in RUC or UDR uniforms of an evening and harassing their neighbours

[theskull1]

NI water are saying that the majority of problems are with burst pipes on private property. Is this a smoke screen considering that scotland should be affected in a similar way (assuming their building control standards are the same)

[orangeman]

Martin Mc Guinness was on a roll about water charges that "well heeled economists" are trying to impose.

[Hereiam]

The Chief Executive of NI Water explained on TV tonight that the problem was that the thaw was too fast!

Did he mean that if the thaw had been slower than the holes in the pipes would have sealed themselves over?

Honest to god it just shows what government bodies think of the public when they come out with statements like that. "Thaw was too fast" that has to be one of the best yet. They all sit in there warm offices throughout the year on their big salaries and when the shit hits the fan they are shown up for what they are worth.... f all. The blame game will go on and come the spring all will be brushed under the carpet till the next big freeze. People should really be worried about the quality of water that will now be coming out of the taps as it is bound to be of poor quality.
Thank god we have a good spring well and don't rely on the mains. It is shocking to be living on an Island with a good steady rainfall every year and we are running out of water. Have we really moved on that much as a modern culture.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

"Thaw was too fast" that has to be one of the best yet.

Not defending the general ineptitude, but I'd say that what he was saying here was not that the fast thaw caused the leaks, rather that with all leaks springing at once their finite resources were spread too thin, i.e., had the thaw been slower they might have been able to get more of their personnel to them as they occurred (or relatively shortly thereafter), and not been overwhelmed.