Emergency Water Supplies

Whether it’s due to increased reportage, heightened awareness or just a more modern outlook, disaster management is increasingly on the minds of the UK’s utilities providers.  Incidents like the Lake District flooding of 2009, and recent catastrophes in further-flung parts of the world (Katrina, Chile, the ’05 tsunami), seem to have crystallised thinking about disaster in such a way that public reassurance is being given top billing on local authority “to do” lists.  People want to know what is going to be done in the event of an emergency – particularly, where the emergency water supplies are going to come from.

The aftermath of any disaster hinges on the availability or otherwise of emergency water supplies.  Areas that either don’t have much in the way of pre-planned emergency water supplies, or don’t have adequate plans in place for delivering those emergency water supplies when the time comes, can find that a bad situation quickly turns a lot worse.  When emergency water supplies can’t get through to the scene of a disaster, secondary problems like dehydration and disease turn the bad into the catastrophic.

Fortunately, the UK has a network of water utilities providers and one commercial company (Water Direct) committed to stockpiling quality assured drinking water for use in emergency situations.  The Nationwide Bottled Water Bank comprises a hoard of strategically placed bottled water – the only emergency water supplies in the country to comply with all water quality regulations.  In addition, UK emergency water supplies are bolstered by the interactions of this network, which allows Water Direct to use reservoir, bottling and loading facilities all over the country to stock its fleet with portable water.  This compartmentalisation of emergency water supplies in the UK means that water is taken from a spot as close to a disaster as possible, saving time and resources during critical periods.

The benefits of this attitude towards emergency water supplies have already been felt.  In 2007, Severn Trent Water had more than 170,000 litres of emergency water at its disposal within 12 hours of a declared emergency.  This figure rose to more than 1 million litres of bottled water alone by the end of day two.

Britain has, to date, been fortunate enough to escape a major national disaster on the scale of the tsunami or Chilean earthquake.  In the regrettable event that something so serious does happen here, her inhabitants may have reason to be thankful that emergency water supplies are being treated in such a sensible fashion.