Northern Ireland Water

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Northern Ireland Water Limited is a water company in Northern Ireland. Formerly an Executive Agency (the Northern Ireland Water Service) within Northern Ireland's Department for Regional Development, it became a government owned company on 1 April 2007. The company provides 710 million litres of water a day and has approximately 1,900 staff. It is responsible for 38,000 km of water and sewerage mains, as well as 47 water treatment works and 918 wastewater treatment works.

1 History
2 Privatisation
3 Major reservoirs and treatment works
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Prior to 1973 water and sewerage services in Northern Ireland outside Belfast were the responsibility of local councils. Within the capital the Belfast Water Commissioners were responsible. The Water Commissioners' building in the City Centre is a landmark, currently occupied by retailer Marks and Spencer.

In 1973 responsibility for providing services was handed over to the newly-formed Water Executive. This was a department within the Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland).

The Northern Ireland Water Service came into being in 1996 when the former Water Executive became an executive agency. In 2005 the Water Service had an annual budget of £302 million and fixed assets of £4.9 billion. The current Chief Executive is Katherine Bryan, formerly chair of various committees in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

[edit] Privatisation

Northern Ireland Water and Scottish Water are the only United Kingdom water companies not to have been privatised.

The announcement of the establishment of a state-owned company was made by Minister of State John Spellar in August 2004 to much public criticism. The main reason for this is the introduction of water charges for domestic consumers. A widespread public campaign to stop the introduction of the charges has ensued, with the organisers claiming that Northern Ireland's water services are already being paid for through the rates system. The government has countered with the assertion that Northern Ireland pays less per person in rates than people in England, Scotland and Wales do for their combined council tax and water charges. The extra investment is also needed to upgrade Northern Ireland's water infrastructure, particularly its mainly Victorian era sewers.

The changes have also resulted in the loss of Civil Servant status for Water Service employees and a number of job losses. The agency's customer services function was outsourced in October 2006 to Echo Managed Services, ultimately owned by South Staffordshire Water.