Senedd members criticise ‘chaos’ after up to 100,000 people left without water

Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter

Senedd members criticised the “shambolic and insufficient” response after a burst pipe left up to 40,000 homes and 100,000 people without water for days.

Janet Finch-Saunders warned of chaos in the wake of the burst pipe which affected supplies in the Conwy Valley, Llandudno and Colwyn Bay from Wednesday January 15.

She told the Senedd: “It was horrendous, it’s probably the most heartbreaking experience I have ever witnessed…. I can’t emphasise enough just how upsetting it was. People have been left traumatised by it … it was a humanitarian crisis.”

The Aberconwy Senedd member said she has continued to receive concerns despite an assurance that everyone’s water should have been restored on Sunday evening.

Ms Finch-Saunders, the Tory shadow climate change secretary, said: “Let’s all be clear: it was not a disruption or interruption as it says on the item agenda today – this was people who were unable to access any clean water.”

‘North-south divide

She criticised Welsh Water for a lack of information and initially providing only two water stations for up to 40,000 people, leaving cars queuing for hours on end.

“There was not a well-organised emergency resilience plan in place at all,” she said.

Ms Finch-Saunders denounced Welsh Water’s “derisory” offer of £30 compensation for households, and £75 for businesses, for every 12 hours their supplies were affected.

She said: “I’ve got businesses that lost several thousand pounds and it’s not enough. When a chief executive of a water company can get £340,000 and other packages making £500,000, it is an insult.”

She added: “This was an unmitigated disaster – it cannot be allowed to happen again … I was disgusted: no message from the first minister, just a message of support – Saturday was rather late, this started on Wednesday … we now know the north-south divide exists.”

‘Alarming’

Llŷr Gruffydd, who chairs the Senedd climate committee, pointed to declines in performance by Welsh Water which was classed as “lagging” by regulator Ofwat for two years in a row.

The Plaid Cymru politician said Welsh Water is one of the worst-performing water companies across Wales and England when it comes to supply interruptions.

Mr Gruffydd raised concerns about the resilience of infrastructure, saying: “It’s alarming, isn’t it that a single solitary burst pipe could cause such widespread disruption?”

Carolyn Thomas, who also represents North Wales, emphasised that lessons must be learned, criticising “poor” communications with a gap filled by people worrying online.

Conservative Sam Rowlands said: “Lessons learned can often take far too long to come through. This showed a real weakness in knowing who’s vulnerable in our communities and how we can get support to them as quickly as possible when necessary.”

‘Horrible’

Darren Millar, the new leader of the Tory Senedd group, criticised “mixed messages” from Welsh Water and the “clearly insufficient” system of mutual aid between water companies.

He said: “It was chaos … you can imagine the disruption our constituents faced when they were offline from being able to flush a loo for up to five days – it was horrible.”

Mr Millar, who represents Clwyd West, raised concerns about care homes not receiving water and the impact on people who live in park homes.

He said: “We also know that the chief executive didn’t get out to actually visit the community at all throughout the whole duration of this….

“Someone who’s on a package of over £500,000 a year who can’t be bothered to get up and speak to customers affected by the shambles … is completely unacceptable.”

‘Fully resolved’

In a statement on January 21, Huw Irranca-Davies told the Senedd almost everybody’s water was back on by Sunday evening and the incident has been fully resolved.

The deputy first minister said: “This was a very serious incident. The loss of water supply for any extended period can have a very significant impact. It is distressing and concerning for all residents … especially for those who are vulnerable or receiving health or care support.”

Mr Irranca-Davies, who is also climate secretary, praised a small army of volunteers who helped distribute water and thanked engineers who worked tirelessly for days.

“This was really difficult work,” he said. “To complete the job … they were lying on their backs in freezing cold water in the middle of the night in a 12ft hole under the Afon Ddu.”

He said Welsh Water has assured him improvements will be made to that section of the network, with £6bn set to be invested in Wales’ water infrastructure over the next five years.

Thanks

A Welsh Water spokesperson said: “We apologise wholeheartedly for the disruption caused to our customers in the Conwy Valley area and understand the inconvenience that was caused.

“We’d like to thank the community for working with us during this incident.

“The safety of our customers was our priority during the incident and 20,000 deliveries of bottled water were made to priority customers.

“We set up four bottled water stations and provided pallets of water at numerous locations across the county.

“Our crews worked hard to keep hospitals and care homes on supply through our fleet of tankers and bottled water deliveries.

“The repair was completed by Friday lunchtime when the system started being refilled.

“This took time as the network includes 900km of pipework and 13 underground storage tanks, the largest of which holds the same amount of water as nine Olympic size swimming pools.

“The first properties were brought back on supply overnight on Friday and through Saturday.

“The majority customers were back on supply on Sunday and the final few were returned to supply on Monday.”