Dwr Cymru Welsh Water pleads guilty to supplying water unfit for human consumption
Posted: Tuesday 16th October 2007
The biggest health scare involving water safety in Wales has concluded with Dwr Cymru Welsh Water pleading guilty to four counts of supplying water unfit for human consumption under the Water Industry Act 1991.
The Drinking Water Inspectorate brought the prosecution against Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water following an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in Anglesey and Gwynedd almost two years ago. From November 2005 until January 2006 70,000 homes were told to boil their water before drinking or using it to prepare food to destroy cryptosporidium, a bug that causes diarrhoea. Water from the Cwellyn reservoir in Snowdonia made 231 people ill.
Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water has been fined £15,000 for each of the four counts and told to pay costs of just under £70,000 to the DWI.
The Consumer Council for Water is pleased that the case has come to a conclusion for the affected customers, who can now claim appropriate compensation. We strongly urge that lessons learned are shared with other companies to prevent an outbreak happening again.
Diane McCrea, Chair of the Consumer Council for Water Wales said: “The safety of drinking water should be a water company’s top priority and should never be compromised - there is no room for complacency where consumers’ health is concerned. In this incident Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water unfortunately failed its customers.
“We will be scrutinising the company’s procedures and the remedial work undertaken to ensure that this never happens again, following the DWI’s detailed assessment of this case. Customers must be able to have confidence in their water supply. This case has taken a very long time to get to court - the public will wonder why. The Drinking Water Inspectorate needs to keep people better informed throughout the process of future investigations.
“Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water’s unique financial structure, where there are no shareholders, means that this fine will ultimately have to be funded from what customers pay. Customers have lost out all round from this case: many in North Wales were made ill, and all will have to foot the bill for this fine and the legal costs, and for the ongoing costs of implementing more stringent safeguards.”
