Northern Ireland – Water supply

I’m sick of hearing these people whinging about having no water. It’s been the coldest December in a hundred years with record low temperatures – of course there is going to be some burst pipes. Half the world doesn’t have running water – it’ll be a good to experience for them. We lost the water round here last year and survived with buckets and bottles for a few days no problems.

I’m sick of whinging in general. Especially when it’s whinging about whingers.

Where are you proposing they fill their buckets and bottles ?

they could melt some snow

maybe they’re whinging because they pay for a modern water supply service?

maybe they’re whinging because the water company are failing to inform their customers about the situation?

maybe if they lived in an emerging country they wouldn’t whinge because they’d have a different expectation about water. but they don’t.

it’ll be a good to experience for them

I’ll make sure my elderly relatives who live in an isolated rural area are aware of that after 8 days with no water supply.

just askin…

does anyone know why this seems to be affecting Northern Ireland worse than the rest of the uk, or indeed Ireland?

just askin…

inept middle aged, middle managers slotted into a ‘state’ owned utility company, by their political mates, cruising along devoid of talent, then found out by the weather – is a guess…

hmm, but, what is it that’s actually different?

do they lay their water pipes closer to the surface?

different pipe materials?

older, brittle pipes? (do newer plastic pipes insulate better? / stretch to allow freezing?)

was is colder?

combinations of the above?

(what’s wrong with being middle aged?)

Guess is right.

Years of underinvestment in infrastructure, partly due to the troubles.

I type as someone originally from Northern Ireland. I won’t reveal what I think about the OP, other than to say I hope he has some proportional suffering soon.

probably a failure to modernise infrastructure and management/technical systems

it has been quite cold too…

I flew back from NI last night, it’s more thawed over there than Jockland.

Folk may have made mistakes in the water co., yes it is unprecedented, so we don’t know if blame should be cast or not.

However it’s a really bad time and there are a lot of folk affected, there’s **** all happening in the UK otherwise so it’s getting a lot of exposure.

teef is yet again showing his in depth analytical skills for which I am really grateful 🙄

inept middle aged, middle managers slotted into a ‘state’ owned utility company, by their political mates, cruising along devoid of talent, then found out by the weather – is a guess…

Well they could privatize it… that’ll improve things. 🙄

Have done a fair amount of work with NI Water, they readily acknowledge that they’re 15-20 years behind England & Wales in terms of their asset management expertise – i.e. they’ve not developed the planning to avoid failures or the operational capability to rapidly respond when things do go wrong.

On top of that they’re still in the public purse, so while iDave is kind of right, they do pay but via their taxes – so only what their local government feels fit to spare once all the other priorities have been budgeted for. Investing in pipes is never a vote winner – one of the reasons for privatisations in E&W was that our government scrum-halfed it to the private sector when faced at the end of the ’80s / early ’90s with a large bill to pay for various environmental Directives which would have had to come from taxation.

NI Water was set up with the aim of going down the E&W model but has been scuppered by the complex politics.

Fred it’s a private company, albeit owned by the state.

but it’s been cold here too…

latest reports i’m hearing suggest that some private individuals blah blah blah and started leaking with the thaw, and that the un-affected water supply has been turned off to stop the reservoirs emptying.

but that does sound a bit like someone looking to pass the buck…

what is it that’s actually different?

In British occupied Ireland the infrastructure is under the control of the occupying forces. In Free Ireland, the water supply is under the influence of Rome and is therefore blessed. Holy Water vs Heretic Water you could say.

LOL at ernie-lynch, as the kiddies say……..

It’s nobody’s fault just the “extreme” UK weather. We’ll all keep our jobs and continue to take our deserved large salaries next year thank you very much.

The fact that the UK is a temperate maritime climate and therefore by definition doesn’t suffer extremes of weather isn’t important.

Heathrow is a good example “the extreme 5 to 10cms of snow” caused shut down for days. The fact that the operating company made a £350 million profit last year doesn’t matter or that New York’s 3 main airports were open 48 hours after a blizzard dropping upto 2 feet of snow isn’t a fair comparison, but in case any of you are still concerned I’ll keep my well paid job but wont take my bonus next year…

It’s all down to the “extreme” UK weather I tells ya.

PS please don’t look at a weather map to see temperatures or snow cover in other parts of the world or you might not buy what I am telling you…

Oh FFS not another professional whinger, 5-10cm snow, you should stop telling outright lies then folk might believe you…oh no your story would fall apart.

Maybe if their pipes were thicker they wouldn’t have burst.

Oh FFS not another professional whinger, 5-10cm snow, you should stop telling outright lies then folk might believe you…oh no your story would fall apart

My mistake. On further investigation it appears they had 6 inches which is just over 15cm.

It’s not just NI that’s having problems with burst water mains right now, all areas of the UK are, just unfortunate that NI have invested less in their infrastructure than the companies on the mainland, and are therefore more prone to problems.

A post got edited out which means my satirical reply no longer makes any sense.
You’ll have to imagine what it said. It shouldn’t be too hard to guess.

maybe they’re whinging because theydon’t pay for a modern water supply service?

fixed for you

as stated above NI water is well known to be behind the times

I’ve had operational experience of a large freeze thaw event during the festive period, it’s not fun and it’s very hard work. They probably underestimated the need to isolate anything that leaked as fast a possible. That would probably have been due to the lack of real time data about the increased network demands which in turn would be due to the lack of investment.

At some point they would have needed to start turning areas off to stop them sucking air (and groundwater) into the pipes when the water ran out. Hence why people are off. The difficulty in mustering “mutual aid” will also hamper NI water.

The issues are probably complex and I imagine plenty of people are jumping on the bandwagon to kick the water company (Quango). These same people have probably been hndering the required modernisation for the last 20 years.

meanwhile the staff are probably working very hard during a difficult period trying to sort out the issues in a proper manner.

A post got edited out which means my satirical reply no longer makes any sense.

I think the mod’s sarcasmeter is set far to high for samuri’s subtelty 🙂

It’s not just NI that’s having problems with burst water mains right now, all areas of the UK are, just unfortunate that NI have invested less in their infrastructure than the companies on the mainland, and are therefore more prone to problems.

they also had it colder and the thaw happened quicker

i used to work for the company that used to do a lot of the NI water engineering infrastructure stuff. and despite being a multinational, they generally behaved like cowboys. some shocking work they did using uk aid money in a developing country – including injunctions against any news outlet report their failures.

MrK mkII – Member
i used to work for the company that used to do a lot of the NI water engineering infrastructure stuff. and despite being a multinational, they generally behaved like cowboys. some shocking work they did using uk aid money in a developing country – including injunctions against any news outlet report their failures.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/ResolvingWorkplaceDisputes/Whistleblowingintheworkplace/DG_10026552

As an ex-employee of a utility I would be interested to know the levels of “bonuses” enjoyed by the directors and senior management whilst investment in the infrastructure was neglected.

Just had a thought – Chain Reaction are based in Northern Ireland and didn’t they have a Water Damaged stock sale on a couple of years ago – maybe they’ll be repeating it.

Think their water supply is fine teef

My favourite has been Peter Robinson describing NI Water’s reaction to the crisis as ‘shambolic’! 😯

Well here’s to you Mrs.Robinson…….

Its not just the prods who have no water Wales , has various areas without water.

I tried to day to report a water leak in a shop, and was told i was 100 in the queue, and to ring back in the middle of the night as it was quiet then.

Another thing if the leak is on your side of the street stop tap youre liable, and if you have a water meter and its inside of the water meter, expect a BIG bill.

Its not just the prods who have no water

Good Lord! You mean the water only goes to catholic households?! Blimey 😯

Holy Water is it begorrah! 😆

begorrah

Racist orange bastard.

😆

I’ll take that as a compliment Deadly

Yay! Thought you’d see the funny side me old mucker. Happy new year to you. Remember, the future’s bright…

The futures a United Ireland? 😆

Happy New Year to you too

That’ll be a re[/b]united Ireland Slapper.

You’re renaming it then ernie?

Personally I want one like right now….

No, I’m quite happy with the existing name Slapper.

Besides, it took ages last time for everyone to get used to the new name for Hibernia.