Northumbrian Water maps out Y2K solution

Northumbrian Water has enlisted the help of IT Map to help keep its water services safe from the millennium bug.

The UK utility, a subsidiary of the worldwide utility company, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, will use IT Map's Year 2000 software to monitor the testing of the PCs which control its pumping stations and water treatment works. The company currently operates 2,000 pumping stations and sewage disposal facilities for 1.2 million customers in the North of England.

Roy Kilborn, head of Northumbrian Water's Y2K compliance programme, said the software has saved the company from having to develop its own application, which could have taken up to 12 months.

Utilities recently came under fire from Action 2000 chairman, Don Cruickshank, when he claimed they are lagging behind in the race to beat the Y2K deadline.

Gerry Bell, head of contingency planning and national infrastructure at Action 2000, said: "Four to five months ago there was a lot of criticism about the utilities' state of readiness, mainly from Don Cruickshank. But this seems to have stung them into action, not in the sense that they had to do any more but that they had to be more public."

Bell is pleased many water companies are past the remedial stage and are now testing. "There have been a lot of joint activities under the auspices of Water UK and Ofwat, and there are now no areas in the water industry where there are huge concerns," he said.