Ofwat, the UK water regulator, is set to take a hard line with water companies this winter if bad weather strikes again.
A spokesperson for the regulator says it expects all companies to “show they have learned lessons and are prepared for whatever the weather brings”.
Utility Week has rounded up comments from some of the UK water companies on their preparations.
Missing from the list of preparations is the deployment of Incident Management Software. The biggest challenge in handling events is usually communication and coordination between large numbers of people in disparate locations.
i2O’s eNet solution is designed exactly for this purpose: to support people in working together following standardised processes to deal with network events.
The solution reduces time to resolution, ensuring all relevant activities are completed and none are duplicated, and makes it easy to review responses to learn lessons for the future.
Of course it’s not just a British winter that creates problems for water companies. A wide variety of weather conditions, caused by more extreme weather events, can be just as challenging, along with natural disasters. And these are on the rise.
Are water firms ready for extreme weather events? Getting ready, but by no means fully prepared.
