NI Water Is 'More Efficient'

NI Water has said it is more efficient after reducing its running costs by £12m, the BBC has reported.

In NI Water's 2013 annual report, it added that it was able to cut costs in a number of ways, including voluntary redundancies.

For customers, the firm said it was "delivering the best overall levels of service", with the quality of drinking water exceeding targets. However, it did admit that heavy snowfalls at the star of the year accounted for the organisation's failure to reach its targets when it came to interruptions to supply.

In March, around 130,000 homes were left without power due to the extreme weather conditions, including a number of water pumping stations.

Elsewhere in the report, NI Water said it had been able to reduce the amount of water which leaked from its network by 6.25m litres each day.

Revenues increased to £420m, but the company's accounting profit fell to £110m.

In response to the report, out-going chief executive Trevor Haslett said: "We have undertaken a complete overhaul of procedures to respond to major incidents and have upgraded our call-answering systems and website."

(JP/CD)