Water Direct Highlights Water Industry Objectives to Reduce Supply Interruption Times

ESSEX, England, October 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

A 36% decrease in the time that supplies are interrupted is just one of the targets set out in the recently published 'A Manifesto of Water' to help improve customer experience of the water industry in England.

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Water UK, the organisation that represents and works with the major water (and wastewater) service providers in the UK, has put together the manifesto to show a summary of water companies' plans for the next 5-year period 2020-2025.

The plans lay out how each water utility company intend to provide their water and sewerage services over this period and how they intend to meet their responsibilities of providing the most essential of public services.

One of the key elements that has come out of the manifesto, is the water industry's intention to reduce supply interruption time for customers by 36%. In the last year there were over 54,600 mains pipe bursts in the UK. As just one of the potential causes for a supply interruption, this highlights how common an occurrence they can be.

For water utility companies, interruptions, whether planned or unexpected, can cause criticism from customers no matter how well they deal with each incident. Water is an essential part of everyday life, and not many people ever expect that they'll be without it. Providing shorter interruption times in any event can reduce reputational damage from dissatisfied customers and regulatory fines as a result.

Some of the water utility companies have laid out in their proposals their intentions to ensure reduced supply interruption times, including reducing reliance on single sources of supply, strengthening the integration of water networks across regions and improving the predicting, preventing and tackling of burst pipes.

Water companies may also engage an alternative water supplier to deliver additional supplies directly into the mains network during an interruption.

Oliver Silcock, Water Direct's Head of Operations explains the use of network injections and how they can reduce interruption times or prevent an interruption altogether.

"Through our network injection protocols, we've developed an innovative means to ensure a water supply is maintained through the normal piped network during a potential interruption. This is achieved through using our state-of-the-art tankers, equipped with specialist pumps that inject water directly into the mains network at a defined pressure and flow rate.