Welsh Water slammed after thousands were left without water

Richard Evans, local democracy reporter

Dŵr Cymru has been slammed by a councillor who warned people “could have died” after thousands were left without water.

Tens of thousands of residents across the county were left without water after a mains burst at a treatment plant in Dolgarrog last week.

Welsh Water said supplies were restored to homes and businesses on Monday morning.

The chairwoman of Conwy’s finance committee slammed Dwr Cymru during a meeting at the council’s Bodlondeb HQ on Monday.

Old Colwyn councillor Cheryl Carlisle thanked volunteers and council staff for pulling together before calling for a public inquiry into the crisis.

Security guards

Cllr Carlisle claimed those in poor health had been left without water and said security guards at water stations had turned people away with small children.

“I’d like to take the time to thank everyone that’s being involved in the crisis in Conwy over the last six days, the selfless volunteers, everyone that provided water and help to the elderly and vulnerable, and also the engineers for fixing the problem and our social care staff and the other staff who have helped keep our nursing homes going, our care homes, and (looked after) the most vulnerable,” she said.

“On a different note, there will need to be an inquiry, won’t there, into the crisis response from Dwr Cymru.

“You cannot fault the engineers, but the delays in basic organisation, like setting up the water stations.

“It was 48 hours in my particular community. Without the volunteers, it would have been very, very serious, indeed, for those with health conditions.”

She added: “The priority lists of Dwr Cymru did not work.

“There were people on it that were still undelivered (not had water delivered) as was last night [Sunday], cancer patients, dialysis patients. This is completely unacceptable.

“Security guards turned away members (of the public) with little children. That was absolutely unacceptable as well.

“I think this has brought out the very best in people and, in just a few, the very worst. There needs to be a clear disaster plan going forward.”

Inquiry

Cllr Carlisle then insisted an inquiry was needed after Cllr Goronwy Edwards suggested a review.

She added: “I think it needs to be something more than a review, given the seriousness.

“People could have died, those with (serious health conditions). I don’t think we should downplay anything until everyone has come through this intact.”

Conwy Council leader Cllr Charlie McCoubrey also thanked those councillors and members of the public “who had gone above and beyond to look after their communities”.

He added the authority was now in a recovery phase with some households still without water and some schools affected.

“Clearly, with any major incident, questions need to be asked about could this have been prevented, was the response adequate, and what happens in the future in terms of how we coordinate things and prevent incidents like that happening again?”

Cllr McCoubrey said he was working with Welsh Government to get answers from Dwr Cymru.

Disruption

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.”