Photo description: Aerial view of water treatment plant. Photo by Patrick Federi on Unsplash.

Welsh Water is set to pay a proposed £44.7m after the industry regulator found “serious and unacceptable” breaches in the supplier’s sewage and network services. The case is the seventh in a series of Ofwat investigations into all water and wastewater companies in England and Wales.

Ofwat’s investigation found that Welsh Water has failed to operate, maintain and upgrade its wastewater assets adequately to ensure they could cope with the flows of sewage and wastewater coming to them. The company also failed to have in place adequate processes and oversight by its senior management and Board to ensure its assets were performing adequately and that it was meeting the legal requirements expected of it.

In acknowledging these breaches, Welsh Water has agreed to take the steps necessary to address the problems identified and there is now a proposed redress package of £44.7 million which would need to be delivered during 2025-30. These costs would be absorbed by the company, and not through higher customer bills and is investment over and above existing plans committed to as part of our 2024 Price Review.

The redress package includes:

• £40.6m to address harm and reduce spills at specific overflows. The company will also investigate and carry out sealing works on private parts of the sewer network to tackle groundwater infiltration which is a significant contributor to frequently spilling overflows.
• An additional £4.1m will be invested to improve river water quality in extremely sensitive catchments.

Ofwat said the improvements would need to be delivered by 2030 and added that the costs would be absorbed by the company, and not through higher customer bills.

A Welsh Water spokesperson said: “We accept the findings of Ofwat’s investigation and apologise for where we have fallen short of the standards that our customers and regulators rightly expect from us.

“We have started a major transformation programme across the company, including within our wastewater services, focused on improving performance, strengthening operational oversight and accelerating investment to deliver better outcomes for rivers and coastal waters.

“The investigation has considered both historic and more recent compliance, and we accept that improvements are needed.”

A consultation on the package is now open to the public and key stakeholders until 2 April to offer any comments and responses before Ofwat announces its final decision.