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RD 08/01
TO REGULATORY DIRECTORS OF ALL
WATER AND SEWERAGE COMPANIES AND
WATER ONLY COMPANIES
9 May 2001
Dear Regulatory Director
REVIEW OF DRINKING WATER QUALITY ASPECTS OF SERVICEABILITY RELATING TO INFRASTRUCTURE AND NON-INFRASTRUCTURE ASSETS
The Drinking Water Inspectorate and Ofwat have today jointly issued to Regulatory Directors and DWI Board level contacts of water and sewerage companies and water only companies in England and Wales a report on the Phase 2 work of a review of drinking water aspects of serviceability relating to water supply systems. The report has been prepared by WS Atkins and issued for information and comment under cover of a letter signed by Milo Purcell of the DWI and myself.
The report, which contains a joint foreword by the Chief Inspector and the Director General of Water Services, may be found on the respective websites of the DWI (http://www.dwi.gov.uk) and Ofwat . A copy of the foreword is attached to this letter.
The consultation exercise will help inform decisions on the objectives for and key tasks to be undertaken in Phase 3. The consultation period ends on 15 June 2001.
Yours faithfully
BILL EMERY
Director of Costs & Performance
and Chief Engineer
Foreword
We are pleased to publish this report of the jointly commissioned work on serviceability in relation to water supply. The report by W S Atkins covers the Phase 2 work of a review of drinking water aspects of serviceability. The objectives of the Phase 2 work were: - to improve the understanding of links between drinking water quality and the operation and maintenance of treatment and distribution assets in maintaining serviceability to customers;
- to review critically methods of measuring serviceability of water supply assets; and
- to investigate options available for improvements to current indicators of serviceability for water supply assets
We are seeking an approach to serviceability indicators that can be developed on an evolving basis as better information on the performance and operation of assets becomes available. For each Periodic Review we seek an improved set of serviceability indicators whose historic trends will demonstrate with more confidence whether the systems are being maintained fit for purpose in a sustainable way.
We wish to establish how much can be achieved in the development of indicators in time for use in the next Periodic Review in 2004. Over the coming months a number of water companies will be working with us on the development of promising approaches, using real asset performance and operational data. The next stage will be completed this coming autumn so that water companies can report on any new indicators the 2002 June returns.
We wish the process to be open and welcome constructive input at each stage, beginning with comments on the work to date. We are also pleased that OFWAT and DWI are involved in the separate study being carried out collectively by the water companies and wish to see that approach as complementary to our project.
We expect to be able to publish a report on Phase 3 of our study towards the end of this calendar year.
DWI and Ofwat will continue to work closely together on these issues to inform the next and future periodic reviews.
Philip Fletcher Michael Rouse
Director General, OFWAT Chief Inspector, DWI | 
Letters to Regulatory Directors
