Welsh Water

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Dŵr Cymru / Welsh Water

Type	Limited Company
Founded	1974
Headquarters	Cardiff, Wales
Industry	Public Utility
Parent	Glas Cymru Ltd.
Website	http://www.dwrcymru.com

Dŵr Cymru / Welsh Water (DCWW) is a company which supplies drinking water and wastewater services to most of Wales and parts of western England.

It is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991.

1 History
2 The current business
3 Coverage
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

Welsh Water originated from the privatisation of the Welsh Water Authority which itself had its origins in the Welsh National Water Development Authority that was created by the 1973 restructuring of the water industry in England and Wales. It took over the following public sector undertakings^[1]:

South West Wales River Authority
Usk River Authority
Wye River Authority
Glamorgan River Authority
Gwynedd River Authority
Dee and Clwyd River Authority
Bwrdd Dŵr Eryri
Cardiganshire Water Board
Central Flintshire Water Board
Conway Valley Water Board
Gwent Water Board
Herefordshire Water Board
Llanelli and District Water Board
Loughor Joint Water Board
Merioneth Water Board
Mid-Glamorgan Water Board
Pembrokeshire Water Board
Radnorshire and North Breconshire Water Board
South-East Breconshire Water Board
Taf Fechan Water Board
West Denbighshire and West Flintshire Water Board
West Glamorgan Water Board

It also took over the water undertaking responsibilities of the following Local authorities:

Anglesey County Council
Cardiff County Borough Council
Carmarthen Borough Council
Carmarthen Rural District Council
Ceiriog Rural District Council (within catchment area of the River Dee)
Cwmamman Urban District Council
Llandeilo Urban District Council
Llandeilo Rural District Council
Llandovery Borough Council
Maelor Rural District Council
Wrexham Rural District Council

Welsh Water Authority was privatised by stock market flotation in 1989, along with the other nine regional water authorities, which provided the company with a substantial cash surplus for some years, which it used to diversify in a wide range of sectors including leisure (Hotels, Fishing etc.). It renamed itself Hyder in 1996 after taking over a local electricity company (SWALEC) and becoming a water and electricity multi-utility.

However, in 1999/2000, following the windfall tax on utility profits and the 1999 Ofwat price review, Hyder got into financial difficulties which led to its breakup following a takeover battle. Western Power Distribution purchased Hyder on 15 September 2000 with a view to acquiring its electricity distribution business, and rapidly sold off Hyder's other assets. Welsh Water was sold by WPD to Glas Cymru for £1, along with £1.85 billion of Hyder debt [1]. Under the terms of its licence Glas Cymru may not operate in sectors other than water.

[edit] The current business

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Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)
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Dŵr Cymru / Welsh Water (Dŵr Cymru means Welsh Water in Welsh) is owned by Glas Cymru, a company limited by guarantee. Most of Welsh Water's activities are outsourced to other companies. KWS Wales operate waste water in the south and United Utilities operate clean water for the whole of Wales and waste water in the north.

One area in which Dŵr Cymru decided to "be the best in breed" is in ensuring the health and safety of everyone who works for it. This is complicated greatly by the fact, as mentioned above, that the great majority of the companies activities are outsourced. DCWW decided that the only way of doing this was to set annual targets for its outsourced companies. This has meant considerable work for some companies, and many meetings run by DCWW's very small H&S team. Their hard work has succeeded in bringing DCWW not just to be the best in the UK, but the best in Europe. It has also succeeded in dragging up the H&S in just about every company involved.

[edit] Coverage

In general it provides services and operates across Wales from the catchments of the River Dee, River Clwyd in the north, round to the River Usk and River Wye in the south and everything to the west of these catchments. This means that it includes part of the Wirral and Cheshire, and also parts of Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire, particularly Hereford. It excludes the area of Wales drained by the River Severn, which is instead served by Severn Trent. It also excludes those areas supplied by private water utilities such as Dee Valley Water which operates in the River Dee catchment supplying the Chester and Wrexham areas with water.