Northern Ireland Water has made a formal commttment to deliver on Freeze Thaw Recovery Plan following the freeze/thaw incident during the December 2010-January 2011 period.

The incident led to massive water supply disruptions for around 450,000 consumers and a subsequent investigation by the Utility Regulator into NI Water’s handling of the incident.

In March 2011, the Utility Regulator published the findings from its investigation which produced 56 actions and are included in the detailed report. The actions have now been assembled into a Recovery Action Plan intended to mitigate against the impact of harsher winters in the future. The actions are also aimed at improving the consumer experience of the service provided should such an incident happen again. NI Water has acknowledged all of the conclusions from the investigation without challenge.

The Board of the Utility Regulator asked for a formal commitment from NI Water, by an exchange of correspondence, to the delivery of the Actions under the Recovery Action Plan. In addition to the broad commitment to the delivery of the Recovery Action Plan in full, the Utility Regulator also stated that the company must commit to specific, time bounded actions in relation to the following:

• establishing a baseline for monitoring and reporting progress;
• providing monthly update reports to the Utility Regulator,
• providing progress reports on specified dates to the Utility Regulator and the wider stakeholder group validating delivery through testing,
• validating delivery through independent audit; and
• reporting progress on the delivery of the plan publicly.

NI Water has formally committed to the delivery of the actions under the Recovery Action Plan in full and also committed to the specific, time bounded actions associated with progress reporting on the delivery of the Recovery Action Plan.