Working Group I: Risk Assessment and Water Governance

Although the initial remit given to this Working Group was to discuss the possible effects of changing management of water resources from State to private companies, most of the group consisting of delegates from former Soviet countries found that they preferred to discuss more regional issues and to focus on risk assessment. The two are not entirely separate issues, as the facilities of the State for providing early warning of hydrological extremes and for planning emergency response are arguably greater than those of privatised industry. There is also a strong argument for close State regulation of water companies, both in terms of environmental impacts and in terms of costs, profit-making and services to the consumer. Record fines imposed by the UK regulator Ofwat on Thames Water and SevernTrent Water during the first half of 2008 for presenting misleading information and poor customer services emphasise the point. Similarly, the UK environmental regulators, the Environment Agency and the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, have fined privatised water companies as well as farmers and industries for numerous river pollution incidents. Some of the worst cases of pollution over recent years in the UK have come from privatised water companies.