With Winter well and truly upon us, NI Water brought its travelling classroom, the waterbus, to the top of the hill at Stormont to educate our political leaders from all parties and their staff on how to ‘Beat the Freeze’ this winter.
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South Down SDLP MLA Séan Rogers, right, gets to grips with what to do in a big freeze. Included is NI Water official Graeme Smyth. [/caption]
NI Water’s Interim Chief Executive, Sara Venning, said: “There are simple procedures the general public can carry out in order to ‘Beat the Freeze’. These include knowing where your stop valve is and keeping the contact number of a registered plumber on hand to deal with any bursts on your property.
“The devastation caused by burst pipes cannot be underestimated. Not only can the water cause structural damage to a property, but the lasting damage in a home can be to personal items, including photographs and electrical equipment such as tablets, iPads and laptops, that may not be replaceable.
“On a wider scale, if you imagine the impact of thousands of litres of water pouring out of burst water pipes; any water distribution network would struggle to maintain continuity of supply in those circumstances. Insulating your pipework is an essential action to protect your water supply and that of your neighbours.”
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Strangford Alliance MLA Kieran McCarthy pictured at Stormont at the NI Water Bus.[/caption]
Visit NI Water’s Youtube site for helpful videos on how to locate your stop valve and where in the house to check for lagging.
NI Water has produced a handy stop valve tag to encourage customers to locate their valve in the event of a burst pipe. Customers can obtain a free tag and other promotional items, including room temperature cards and ice scrapers by phoning our Waterline number 08457440088, emailing or contacting us through Facebook or Twitter;
We also have a Customer Care Register which is designed to meet the needs of those requiring extra help or support from the organisation. Joining is simple, customers can phone the Waterline number or obtain further information by visiting our website www.niwater.com
In January 2011 a single burst pipe in a vacant business property lost over 30 million litres of water. This was enough to:
* Supply a family of four with water for 137 years
* Fill 15 million kettles
* Make 120 million cups of tea
* You could have 375,000 baths
* You could have 850,000 showers
* Flush a toilet about 3,000,000 times
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