Welsh Water invests £100m in treatment works

Dwr Cymru Welsh Water's commitment to spend £1bn over the next three years on a series of infrastructure upgrades has taken a step closer with the appointment of a design and build partner for improvements to 12 water treatment works (WTW).


The work, which itself represents an investment of close to £100m, includes the design and construction of new WTWs, the expansion and refurbishment of existing works and control system upgrades, all to be delivered by the employee-owned contractor, Black & Veatch.

The upgrades are part of Welsh Water’s Go to Green commitment for which all separate projects have been combined into a single programme of work. By packaging the improvements in this way the company claims to have increased the opportunity to achieve savings.

“A great deal more efficiency can be captured when we have access to all the work and can truly plan, design, procure and construct across multiple schemes,” said Black & Veatch’s UK director of capital delivery, Steve Canney.

The first projects under the programme are now underway. While current works covered by the £1bn plan are due to be completed by 2015, a spokesperson for the company said that Welsh Water’s service and infrastructure commitments were subject to a rolling five-year programme of improvements.

Welsh Water confirmed that the £100m involved in the WTW improvements was additional money, not originally included in the current 5-year regulatory investment period (2010-15).

The company said this “accelerated programme” had been made possible by financing efficiency benefits flowing from Glas Cymru’s not-for-profit ownership of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water.

edie staff

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