Plug the leaks, water companies told as hosepipe ban goes ahead

WATER companies have been told by Michael Gove to stop blaming homeowners for water supplies running low and to “raise the bar on tackling leaks”. He made the comments as taps were running dry across the North West due to leaks and pump failures yesterday as United Utilities confirmed its hosepipe ban would go ahead despite recent downpours. At least seven areas served by the company were left with either no water, dribbling taps, or in some cases “discoloured” water thanks to a range of infrastructure failures.

The Environment Secretary summoned water companies to a summit in London to urge them “to raise the bar on tackling leaks and agree ambitious new targets” with the regulator Ofwat.

Mr Gove said water companies could not blame the recent dry spell for shortages when they are a “consequence of climate change with which we all have to deal”. He added: “The Government, Ofwat and customers expect water companies to improve their performance.”

Yesterday in Preston, mobile tankers had to be dispatched to supply emergency water while engineers repaired mains damage. Meanwhile, homes near the Etihad Stadium in Manchester were left with little or no water, a situation also seen in Liverpool and Ashtonunder-lyne, as well as rural and urban parts of Cheshire and Lancashire.

A hosepipe ban will be imposed in the North West from Sunday – the only area of England to come under such a restriction – with £1,000 fines threatened for those who breach it.

A United Utilities spokesman said: “The majority of local incidents are general day-to-day faults which happen on a live operational network, which are being attended to by our engineers. We would expect to see that with a network of pipes criss-crossing the North West.”

He said the Preston outage was the result of “third-party” damage.