As the River Wey Rises Again More Water Supply Problems

Published on: 4 Mar, 2024
Updated on: 6 Mar, 2024

By Martin Giles

March 4:

From Angela Richardson MP

“On Saturday evening, I was just about to head out support the fundraising event for our wonderful local charity Challengers, when I was notified that a quick power failure on Saturday morning had impacted our local water works and treatment plants, so I put up a quick Facebook post to alert residents and then checked regularly through the evening on updates to my inbox and Facebook page.

“Thames Water emailed me several times throughout the evening and only one resident contacted me with issues and another alerted me to a tanker (presumably helping with additional supply). A bottled water station was set up at Artington Park and Ride and Thames Water assured me that they were delivering bottled water out to residents on their priority list.

“On Sunday, I continued to check in with those I knew were still having issues, but it remained very quiet. This morning I asked for a full report from Thames Water and why they were able to deal with this incident more quickly, efficiently and without the enormous impact on residents compared to last time.

“They will take some time to speak to engineers on the ground to make sure that everything they report back is accurate.

“Quick recap: Heavy rain increases run off and turbidity in our rivers. Increased filtration is required of water extracted from our river. A power failure means that once everything stops, even a quick flicker of a power, very clean water is needed to make sure that filters work properly and that clean water cannot be abstracted from the river. It’s why investment into our treatment plant at Shalford, in particular, is key.

“One swallow doesn’t make a summer, but I hope you will start to feel that we are getting on top of our water issues in Guildford and surrounding villages by both Jeremy Hunt and I putting constant pressure on Thames Water to make sure upgrades, investment, communication and compensation are swift.

“We are holding another public meeting next month with the new Thames Water CEO and Ofwat. I will let you have meeting details soon.”

A statement issued on the Thames Water website this morning gave the following update:

“On Saturday a power outage across our area affected our water treatment works in Ladymead, Shalford and Netley Mills. Our storage levels in the water network covered demand during this time to avoid customers losing their water or experiencing low pressure.

“Our engineers worked solidly over the weekend to keep things running. We’re not aware of any customers impacted by low pressure or loss of water and we are working to rebuild our supply levels in the network. Our engineers will continue to work today to get things back to normal however there is no immediate risk to customers losing supply.

“We know how worrying this is and thank you for your patience and cooperation.”

March 3: Thames Water announced further problems with Guildford’s water supply yesterday, once again caused by electricity supply issues at some of their water treatment plants.

The problem seems to have again coincided with high water levels in the River Wey following the recent wet weather. 38.4 mm of rain have fallen in Guildford over the last five days following a February with significantly higher than average rainfall.

See Jeremy Hunt’s MP reaction added below…

The four postcode areas affected, GU1, GU2, GU4 and GU5 are in the town centre and areas to the east of the town.

The areas affected by cuts to water supply or reduced pressure are in the GU1, GU2, GU4 & GU5 postcodes.

The Thames Water website states: “Yesterday a power outage across our area affected our water treatment works in Ladymead, Shalford and Netley Mills. Our storage levels in the water network covered demand during this time to avoid customers losing their water or experiencing low pressure.

“Our engineers worked solidly yesterday and overnight to keep things running and now we’re working to rebuild our supply levels in the network.

“Customers will see our engineers out and about in the area today as we continue to get things back to normal. However there is no immediate risk to customers losing supply.

“We know how worrying this is and thank you for your patience and cooperation.”

Cllr Paul Follows

The leader of Waverley Borough Council, Paul Follows (Lib Dem), who was highly critical of Thames Water following the previous incidents in the autumn, said this morning: “After the last serious outages back in November and the root causes of those, it’s fair to say I am one of a number of councillors whose concern is raised by the volume of excess water going through the Thames Water facilities, as we have seen over the last 48hrs.

“Councillors in both Waverley and Guildford have been in touch with Thames Water and I know have been assisting residents and facilitating help via Thames Water where appropriate.

“The frequency of these outages, however, is of serious and growing concern to residents and is the consequence of chronic underinvestment over so many years and an almost criminal lack of oversight from the government.”

Jeremy Hunt MP

This afternoon, Jeremy Hunt, the MP for Surrey South West added his view. He said: “I am relieved the impact of this outage has been limited in my constituency and I am encouraged to see this time Thames Water has responded quickly and communicated clearly to their customers.

“But this incident further demonstrates ongoing concerns about the fragility our water supply – it is not right that a short power outage can seriously impact operations at three local water treatment works, risking supply to thousands of homes.

“At the public meeting I have arranged in early April with Thames Water’s new CEO Chris Weston improving our water supply resilience will be top of the agenda.”

Responses to As the River Wey Rises Again More Water Supply Problems

Peter Mills Reply

March 7, 2024 at 3:09 pm

Is there a valid technical reason why Thames Water does not have backup generators that automatically kick in when there is a power outage, as is common with most large commercial premises to ensure business continuity? Even the smallest of businesses have uninterruptable power supplies (batteries) for their critical infrastructure like voice and data comms.