Water bill rises to fund £130m network investment

Steve Langlois said some parts of the island's water infrastructure were up to 100 years old

Guernsey Water is set to invest almost £130m to "renew and improve critical infrastructure and better protect the island against future water shortages".

The firm said it would fund the investment through efficiency savings after refurbishment of St Saviour's water treatment works, borrowing and increasing bills "to spread the cost between current and future water customers".

The standing charge for both tap water and wastewater services are set to increase above inflation with metered bills rising on average by about £4 a month and unmetered ones by about £6 a month.

Steve Langlois, managing director of Guernsey Water, said: "We cannot neglect the infrastructure we are already using."

The company said it planned to spend £72m on maintaining the existing drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, parts of which are up to 100 years old.

Mr Langlois said: "We must invest adequately in this to ensure it remains stable and continues to meet the island's needs.

"Failure to do so simply stores up problems for the future, which would be more costly for customers in the long run."

Guernsey Water said rainfall between January and September this year was 13% less than the average for the past 10 years, and 15% below the 30-year average.

Mr Langlois said the company had to invest in the island's resilience by improving water storage, taking into account changing rainfall patterns.

"The issues we face are identical to what water companies across Europe are having to deal with, just without the economies of scale."

More than 8.5 million UK households had a hosepipe ban over the summer but Guernsey avoided one despite water storage levels in local reservoirs dropping below average.

The company is set to spend £20m on a new reservoir at Les Vardes Quarry for freshwater storage, once quarrying activities have finished.

The company said they would start installing pipes which "connect into the network between the island's reservoirs" several years before the conversion works at the quarry, which are expected to start from about 2035.

Passers-by the BBC spoke to in St Peter Port had mixed views about the plans.

Esther Owolu said she felt as though she did not earn enough to live in Guernsey

Esther Owolu said it felt like "everything is increasing" in price and she felt as though "I'm not earning enough to live here".

"It's like one after the other," she said.

"But these are like necessities, you really can't do without them, so it just gets to a point you accept."

Cathy Corbin said she had already seen other bills go up this year

Cathy Corbin said it felt as though "everything's going up".

"It doesn't matter if it's water, electric, anything. It's not very good," she said.

Max Gaudion said he "realised systems need updating".

The utility company said it would fund the investment through efficiency savings, borrowing and increasing customer bills "to spread the cost between current and future water customers".