Lack of bottled water after burst pipe 'unacceptable'

There was "chaos" after a burst water main left up to 100,000 people across north Wales without water, the Conservatives leader in the Welsh Parliament has said.

Darren Millar, Senedd member (MS) for Clwyd West, said it was "completely unacceptable" that some of his constituents were unable to get bottled water for three days.

A Welsh government minister told him there were "lessons to learn" and that water supplier Welsh Water was "reflecting on the incident".

It took five days for water to be fully restored to 40,000 homes after a mains burst underneath a river in Conwy last week.

Speaking in the Senedd, Millar said he wanted to thank the emergency services and the team which repaired the burst main for their work, but he said "it was chaos" for residents.

"You can imagine the disruption our constituents faced when they were offline from being able to flush their loo for up to five days, it was horrible," he told MSs.

"We had housebound residents who were unable to get bottled water for three days."

Millar said Welsh Water, also known by its Welsh name Dŵr Cymru, had been putting out "mixed messages" to residents about how to access bottled water.

"I had one constituent who phoned three times and it wasn't until Saturday at two in the morning that she had a knock at the door with bottles arriving.

"Now clearly that's not good enough."

The Welsh government's response in the Senedd was led by Climate Change Secretary Huw Irranca Davies who praised the work of the emergency services and the engineers.

"Let's be clear, this was difficult work," he said.

"To complete the job at one point they were lying on their backs in freezing cold water, in the middle of the night, in a twelve-foot hole under the Afon Ddu" river.

"It took a huge team of people, and some incredible logistical and engineering work, to get this fixed."

He said Welsh Water had announced arrangements for compensation available to residential and business customers and information could be found on its website.

"As there always will be in situations such as this, there will be lessons to learn," he added.

"As we move into recovery phase, Dŵr Cymru will be reflecting on the incident, identifying what worked well and things we need to do better."

"I intend to host a meeting with Dŵr Cymru – and all the partners involved – as we did following Storm Bert and Storm Darragh, to reflect on what could have been done differently, and how we can improve our preparedness and response for situations such as this in the future."

"I know there was some frustration with communications as well, and we need to look at that and see what could be improved."

Plaid Cymru's Llŷr Gruffydd, who chairs the Senedd's Climate Change Committee, said water infrastructure was "clearly fragile" adding: "It's alarming, isn't it that a single solitary burst pipe could cause such widespread disruption?"

The north Wales MS said the people of Conwy wanted assurances that this would never happen again.

The climate change secretary added that he was awaiting "with interest" a review of the incident from the industry regulator, the Drinking Water Inspectorate.

Welsh Water has apologised and said it recognised "the inconvenience being experienced by customers", with compensation due to be paid to those affected.

Eligible households will be paid £30 for every 12 hours their supplies have been affected while business customers will be paid £75 for every 12 hours.