Water emergency advice for businesses (From This is The West Country)

Water emergency advice for businesses

1:00pm Friday 19th March 2010

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ADVICE has been handed out to large businesses and organisations in the Yeovil area and other parts of Somerset to help them plan for water supply emergencies.

Wessex Water held seminars for companies who use millions of litres of water a year where it discussed how prepared companies were for an emergency water shortage or restriction.

Julian Okoye, commercial manager at Wessex Water, said water supplies were extremely reliable in the Wessex Water region and the company was investing heavily in improving the security of its supply network further.

But he added it was important that any company or organisation which used water as a critical part of its operations should have business continuity plans in place to ensure it could cope in an emergency.

He said: “Many of those who attended the seminars rely on our services twenty four hours a day so the advice was extremely valuable in helping them consider how they would operate if faced with a situation where little or no water was available to them.

“We gave businesses various scenarios of water shortages and restrictions which have happened outside the Wessex Water region and discussed the sorts of responses businesses might like to consider if a similar situation arose in our area.

“This could include anything from making sure water tankers can access their site to provide water to prioritising which services should remain in operation if only a limited supply was available.”

Representatives from almost 40 companies attended the seminars and many took the opportunity to go on guided tours of water and sewage treatment works.

Businesses and organisations which attended included hospitals, a local council, manufacturing organisations, a prison, educational establishments, food and beverage companies and holiday resorts.

The seminars were also an opportunity for Wessex Water to explain how its multi million pound investment programme over the next five years would improve water and sewerage services in the area and the impact this was likely to have on prices.

It also gave the company a chance to advise businesses on how best to manage water and sewerage infrastructure at their sites.

Mr Okoye added: “Many businesses were not aware of all the services and advice we offer and the seminars were an excellent opportunity to tell them more about our business.

“We had some excellent feedback from the event with many who attended saying it was interesting and worthwhile.”

Wessex Water supplies around 353 million litres of water a day and treats and takes away 490 million litres of sewage across its region.

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