Southern Water is a 365-day-a-year, 7-day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day operation – and as communities gather to celebrate this festive period, engineers will be on hand to keep things flowing. Work will continue with frontline workers manning water supply works, wastewater treatment works, pumping stations and the operational control room, as well as fixing any problems that arise across the region’s 49,000km of sewers and 15,000km of water pipes. Matt Smiley, operations manager for water production and distribution, is used to missing a few Christmas dinners due to his chosen career. He said:
“As always, our dedicated shift teams will be on-site operating our four major water supply works across the South throughout the festive period, and we have 60 extra colleagues on standby for our remaining seventy-six sites in case of emergency. “People rely on us to deliver wholesome water treated to our stringent standards every time they turn a tap. Water company employees accept unsociable hours as part and parcel of the job. “We care about the communities in which we live, so spare a thought for those of us working over the festive period whose efforts often go unnoticed, or those who probably won’t get called in but are ready to drop everything and attend a site at a moment’s notice”.
Meanwhile, at this time of year, customers should also prepare for cold snaps, when sudden drops in temperature can cause pipes to freeze and then burst when they thaw. Alex Saunders is Southern Water’s head of wastewater networks, where activity also continues throughout the day and night. He’s said:
“We don’t choose when a sewer pipe will break – or get blocked with turkey fat! That’s why we have control room staff keeping an eye on the network, and hundreds of contractors plus our fully equipped High Impact Team ready to respond on the ground in minutes should they be needed – no matter how remote. Providing an excellent service to our customers and protecting the environment are our key priorities.
