Water & Wastewater Treatment

4 | FEBRUARY 2015 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Industry news February An industrial dispute over pensions at Northern Ire- land Water has le thou- sands of people without water aer unions stepped up an action which started before Christmas. Industrial action involv- ing around 1,000 workers at NI Water began on Decem- ber 22nd, having been called by the Water Group of Trade Unions, which includes NIPSA, Unite and the GMB. The unions are unhappy about changes which will see workers contribute more and work longer in order to receive pension benefits. The industrial action was to involve a withdrawal of overtime, refusal to provide 'on call' services and a work- to-rule. However, the unions agreed an 'emergency pro- tocol' to deal with requests for emergency assistance as "a gesture of goodwill" over the Christmas and New Year period. Since this protocol was withdrawn on January 9th, NI pensions dispute leaves thousands without water Contract Tracker Thames picks two JVs for AMP6 work Two joint ventures, Agility and KCD, are to work with Thames Water in an alli- ance that will deliver up to £1BN worth of business over the next five years. The new coalition will deliver water networks and developer services for Thames Water for up to the next 15 years. Agility comprises J Murphy & Sons and Morrison Utility Services, while KCD consists of Kier Services and Clancy Docwra. The alliance will deliver clean water network repair, rehabilitation and leak detection, along with constructing new water mains; it will manage the logistics and scheduling of programmes, and develop stakeholder services. NI telemetry contract signed Northern Ireland Water has awarded a £10M seven-year contract for te- lemetry equipment to two firms, Schneider Electric Ltd and EMR Integrated Solutions. The work will involve the supply and installation of equipment for around 900 outstations in the country. SWW extends pump contract Sykes Pumps' sole supply agreement with South West Water (SWW) for the supply of all electric submersible and surface mounted diesel pump hire has been extended for a further two years. Sykes has worked with SWW since 2008. 10,000 customers in Fer- managh and Tyrone were le without water for a weekend aer a pump at a treatment plant in Enniskil- len broke down. The follow- ing weekend, the lack of out- of-hours work meant that around 6,500 households were again cut off from sup- plies in Fermanagh, Tyrone, and Derry-Londonderry. Talks aimed at ending the dispute were still ongoing as WWT went to press. Northern Ireland Water chief executive Sara Ven- ning said: "I do recognise the right of employees to participate in responsible action, but would reiterate that it is not within the gi of NI Water to defer pension reform, a point which has been accepted by TU col- leagues. "NI Water remains on high alert with a major in- cident regime in place. Our major incident team, which was established and in place over the holiday period will remain in place. Unfortu- nately with the limited re- sources available to NI Wa- ter outside normal working hours and with 26,000km of water mains, 15,000km of sewers and literally thou- sands of pumping stations and treatment works to be monitored and attended to if necessary, there will be an impact on services to our customers." Regional Development Minister Danny Kennedy called for the emergency protocol to be reinstated when he was called to the Northern Ireland Assembly to answer urgent questions on the crisis on January 20. "The consequences of the industrial dispute have been unacceptable for customers over the past two weekends and in particular the past week," he said. "I am disap- pointed that the two parties have not brokered an agree- ment and I am sorry the public are bearing the brunt of that failure." £230M: The amount of a new loan facility agreed for Dwr Cymru Welsh Water with the European Investment Bank. The loan will enable the utility, with its unique not-for-profit model, to finance its record £1.5BN capital investment programme while keeping customers' bills low. Tunnel inspections take place on the Haweswater Aqueduct Project, which has recently been awarded the Capital Project Management Award by WWT's sister title Utility Week. United Utilities, MWH and Land & Marine Engineering (a subsidiary of J Murphy & Sons) were all recognised for the project, which consisted of a detailed inspection of 50km of the aqueduct's tunnels within the tight timescale of a 17-day outage period. The aqueduct runs from the Haweswater Reservoir in Cumbria to Greater Manchester.

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