Thames Water Utilities Ltd, known as Thames Water, is the private utility
company responsible for the public water supply and waste water treatment in
large parts of Greater London, the Thames Valley, Surrey, Gloucestershire,
Wiltshire, Kent, and some other areas of the United Kingdom. Thames Water is the
UK's largest water and wastewater services company, and supplies 2.6
gigalitres of drinking water per day, and treats 4.4 gigalitres of wastewater
per day. Thames Water's 15 million customers comprise 27% of the UK
population. Thames Water is responsible for a range
of water management infrastructure projects including: the Thames Water
Ring Main around London; Europe's largest wastewater treatment works and
the UK's first large-scale desalination plant. Infrastructure proposals by the
company include the proposed £4.2 billion London Tideway Tunnels, and the
proposed reservoir at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, which would be the largest
enclosed or bunded reservoir in the UK. Thames Water is regulated under the
Water Industry Act 1991 and is owned by Kemble Water Holdings Ltd, a consortium
formed in late 2006 by Australian-based Macquarie Group's European
Infrastructure Funds specifically for the purpose of purchasing Thames Water.
Other large shareholders in recent years include: BT Pension Scheme, the Abu
Dhabi Investment Authority and the China Investment Corporation. The name
of the company reflects its role providing water to the drainage basin of
the River Thames and not the source of its water, which is taken from a range
of rivers and boreholes. History
Thames Water can trace its history back to numerous earlier companies and
individuals stretching back to the early 17th century:
Performance Every day, Thames Water abstracts /
extracts, treats and supplies 2.6 gigalitres of potable tap water from 100
water treatment works via 288 clean water pumping stations through 31,100 km
of managed water mains to 9 million customers across London and the Thames
Valley. It maintains 30 raw water reservoirs and 235 underground service
reservoirs. Likewise, it daily removes, treats and
disposes 4.4 gigalitres of wastewater from 15 million customers using 2530
sewage pumping stations through 109,400 km of managed sewerage mains to 348
sewage treatment works across an area of 13,000 km2 of South England. On 1
October 2011, it adopted 40,000 km - an additional 60% - of private sewers and
lateral drains to add to its then stock of 68,000 km giving a new network of
108,000 km. By 2015, this figure had grown to 109,400 km managed sewerage
mains. Before 1 October 2016, it is obliged to adopt 5,000+ private sewage
pumping stations to add to its current stock of 2530 managed sewage pumping
stations Thames Water produces biosolid
fertiliser as a by-product from the waste treatment, and supplies this to
local farms. It also recovers phosphates - an
increasingly important source of a dwindling naturally-occurring mineral.
As of 2013, it recovered approximately 18 MW, or 12.5% of its total energy
requirements from renewable electricity generated from biogas collected from the
sewage. Further biogas capacity, the burning of 'fatbergs' removed from
London's sewers and substantial solar farms have enabled the company to
announce a 2015-16 target of generating 36MW or 20% of its total energy
requirements from renewable sources, a 2020 target of self-generating 33% of
electricity needs, and a commitment to 100% renewable energy eventually.
= Health and Safety = In December 2014 Thames Water pleaded
guilty to a charge under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 after the
death at work of one its workers. They were fined £300,000 with £61,000
prosecution costs. The incident occurred at their Coppermill Water Treatment
Works in Walthamstow, London E17 in April 2010 when an excavator reversed
over and killed the worker in a slow sand filter. The prosecution followed an
investigation by the Health and Safety Executive.
= Finance = As of 2014, Thames Water provides the
second cheapest residential water and sewerage charges of all the combined
Water and Sewerage companies. Since 2007, it has made capital
investments at least £1 billion p.a. in its infrastructure - the largest such
annual investment within the UK water industry. In 2014-2015, this figure was
£1.4 billion. This level of investment has allowed the company to defer, but
not avoid, substantial portions of its corporation tax liability in line with
UK tax law. = Leakage =
2001-06 Thames Water was repeatedly criticised
for the amount of water that leaked from its pipes by the industry regulator
Ofwat and was fined for this. In May 2006 the leakage was nearly 900
megalitres per day and in June that year Thames Water missed its target for
leakage reduction for the third year in a row. The Consumer Council for Water, a
customers' group, accused Thames Water for continuing to miss their targets for
the past five years. In July 2006, instead of a fine which would have gone
"to the exchequer", the company was required to spend an extra £150 million
on repairs. 2007-date
Thames Water has hit its Ofwat-agreed annual leakage-reduction target for the
past nine years running. In 2006-07, the company stated that it
had reduced its daily loss through leaks by 120 Ml/day to an average of 695
Ml/day. For 2009-10 Ofwat-reported leakage was 668.9 Ml/day. In its price
control determination for the period 2010 to 2015, Ofwat did not allow the
funds needed to finance a significant further reduction in leakage and used
the assumption that leakage would be 674 Ml/day in 2010-11 and 673 Ml/day from
2011-12. In 2011-12, actual leakage was 637 Ml/day; in 2012-13, 646 Ml/day; in
2013-14, 644 Ml/day; in 2014-2015, 654 Ml/day.
The company has achieved these reductions by:
The recent successes in meeting leakage targets have mitigated the earlier
failures to meet targets. As a result, Thames Water now leaks slightly less
water than at privatisation in 1989, having reduced leakage from its 31,100
km network of water pipes by more than a third since its 2004 peak to its current
lowest-ever level. As of 2013 and with an older network profile, Thames Water
leaked 25.8% of supply, slightly less than Severn Trent at 27%. As of 2015
Thames Water leaks 25.1% of supply. = Pollution =
In the period 2005-13 Thames Water was the most heavily fined water company in
the UK for pollution incidents, paying £842,500 for 87 events. It also paid the
largest fine for a single incident of £204,000. Following concern that the
level of environmental pollution fines in the water industry was too low, in
2013 the Sentencing Council proposed a significant increase in the level of
fines. The proposals would see the average fine increase to £250,000 and
the maximum £2 million. Conversely, in 2014, Thames Water
admitted that it had accidentally over-reported the number of properties
at high risk of sewage flooding between 2005-10. It agreed a compensation
package for customers of £86m The Thames Tideway
Over centuries of London's growth from medieval times to the Victorian age, the
natural tributary system of the Thames Tideway was converted first into public
open sewers and then closed over into covered sewers which emptied directly
into the River Thames. Joseph Bazalgette's remediation of the ensuing
1850s Great Stink renewed much of London's sewerage mains infrastructure.
However, the new design was not intended to cope with the doubling of London's
population over the following 150 years. The concreting of huge amounts of
London's green spaces causes substantial rainwater run-off into the drainage and
sewerage systems which had been expected to soak into the ground. As a result,
even small amounts of rainfall in certain circumstances can cause London's
outdated Victorian sewerage system to fail over, and release untreated sewage
mixed with rainwater directly into the Thames Tideway.
Each year, on average, there are 50-60 such incidents and a total of 39,000,000
m3, or 39 million tonnes, is released. In 2013-14, exceptional weather
conditions and flooding caused a total release of 55,000,000 m3, or 55 million
tonnes. The released effluent follows the ebb and flow of the tidal Thames,
and can take up to 3 days to exit the Tideway into the Estuary. For this
reason, Thames Water advises against swimming in the Thames Tideway and, by
extension, walking in the tidal strand area. Despite this pollution, large
marine mammals are increasingly found in the Thames Tideway and Estuary
The first two stages of the London Tideway Improvements are upgrades to 5
sewage treatment works and construction of the Lee Tunnel, due for completion in
2015. Together, these are expected to result in an annual discharge reduction
of 40%. This is equivalent to a reduction of 16,000,000 m3 or 16 million
tonnes to about 23,000,000 m3 or 23 million tonnes of effluent. The third
stage is the Thames Tideway Tunnel, which has been proposed by the Thames
Tideway Strategic Study, including Thames Water, as an effective solution
to deal with most of the remaining problem. On 12 September 2014, planning
consent was formally approved by the UK Government. On 24 August 2015, the
building contracts were awarded for the western section, the central section and
the eastern section. The necessity for action has added urgency because of
imminent water quality fines of up to £1bn by the European Commission on the
UK Government. Other incidents
In September 2007, 5 km of the River Wandle, Greater London was polluted. In
January 2009, Thames Water pleaded guilty and was "fined £125,000 and
ordered to pay £21,335 in clean-up and investigation costs". In February 2010,
on appeal, the fine was found to be "manifestly excessive" and was reduced
to £50,000. On 5–8 June 2011, more than 230,000 m3,
or 230,000 tonnes, of sewage were released from Mogden Sewage Treatment
works, killing 26,000 fish. Between 14 and 16 August 2011, Thames
Water polluted the Faringdon Stream, in Faringdon, Oxfordshire. The company was
fined £10,000 and ordered to pay costs of £4,488
On 29 October 2011, Thames Water released thousands of tonnes of raw
sewage into the River Crane, Greater London killing thousands of fish, when a
six-tonne valve jammed during routine maintenance. Despite tankering and
alternative routing, the volume of sewage from Heathrow overwhelmed the
operations. Thames Anglers Conservancy's Robin Vernon said: “It will take a
decade to repair all the damage done by the sewage spill. Everything in there is
just dead now.” In 2013, fungus and slime in the River Crane was attributed
to run-off of de-icer from Heathrow getting into the river In 2014, Thames
Water blamed recent pollution on fat poured down drains by local customers
On 9 December 2011, Thames Water was fined £60,000 after releasing sewage
sludge into the Foudry Brook killing up to 20,000 fish in a three-mile stretch
from Silchester, Hampshire. In September 2012, clogged-up pumps
caused sewage to be released into the Chase Brook, near Newbury. A £250,000
fine imposed in August 2014 was adjudged "lenient" on appeal in 2015. The pumps
were replaced by improved pumps. = Local planning =
In 2011, the company found itself involved in a controversial
redevelopment plan for the Bath Road Reservoir in its home town of Reading.
An appeal against Reading Borough Council's rejection of the plan was
dismissed by the planning inspector in January 2011. Full planning permission
has since been granted on 10 December 2012.
= Flooding = The exceptional rain and weather
conditions of 2013-14 caused swollen rivers and several low-lying Thames
Water treatment works to be submerged under flood water.
In February 2014, the River Ash caused flooding in homes in
Staines-upon-Thames. This flooding was exacerbated by a two-day delay by Surrey
County Council's 'Gold Control' flood control group in ordering Thames Water
to close a sluice gate on a Thames Water aqueduct. Thames Water considered it had
been following an existing protocol agreed with Surrey County Council and
the Environment Agency. References
External links Thames Water website