Ofwat, the OFFICE OF WATER SERVICES, is inviting views from customer groups, the water industry and other interested parties about its proposals for tackling sewer flooding.
In its note OFWAT makes several rather obvious statements but makes important points as well. It says that flooding from sewers occurs when sewers become blocked or when they are unable to cope with the volume of sewage flowing through them. This is the responsibility of the sewerage companies. Sewer flooding is different from the more general flooding which results from heavy rainfall and for which the sewerage companies share responsibility with several other bodies, public and private.
Three out of every 10,000 customers were affected in 2000-2001 by flooding from blocked or overloaded sewers. This may not read like very many, but imagine the disaster and distress, the mess and the smell. Although the risk of this happening has reduced over the last ten years, the unusually wet winter of 2000-2001 highlighted concerns that insufficient progress has been made in reducing the problem.
This consultation examines the extent and causes of sewer flooding and invites views on:
Customers' bills currently allow for companies to make significant improvement in the next few years - 4,500 problems will be solved by 2005. But customer representatives and some companies want to make faster progress. Ofwat also has to consider how much investment is needed in the longer term. This will be an important issue when companies' price limits are reviewed in 2004.
Tackling flooding from sewers can be very expensive. Ofwat is therefore consulting on the scale and timing of investment to tackle flooding from sewers, and would also like comments on their proposals for deciding which problems should be given highest priority.
NCF will be responding to the consultation though the answers to the questions asked seem rather obvious to the uninitiated. If any readers have views please send them to Roy Bisson, our expert in these matters, before the end of June. If you want to know more, the consultation paper Flooding from Sewers - A Way Forward is available on the Ofwat website: www.ofwat.gov.uk and from the Ofwat Library, phone 0121 625 1373. Roy's address is `West Lynn', Croute Havilland, St. Peter Port, Guernsey, GYi 1 ET
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