http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/99/04/18/stibusnws01019.html?2215803

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Water firms fall behind in bug battle

David Parsley

WATER companies are failing to prepare adequately for the millennium bug and this could lead to millions of customers across the country facing water shortages over the new year period. Action 2000, the government agency tackling the bug, is critical of all water companies, which are still behind schedule in preparing for the potential troubles caused by the bug.

The agency gives companies a blue rating if they are ready for the bug, amber for lagging behind and red for emergency cases.

Don Cruickshank, chairman of Action 2000, believes the water supply is on amber alert. "The water companies are classified as amber pretty much across the board," he said. "They are getting better but they are not quite there yet."

Cruickshank will unveil the readiness of health, police, fire, transport and food services on Wednesday with most expected to be cleared to cope with the bug.

There are concerns about a small number of health authorities and ambulance services, but the agency will not be naming and shaming the guilty. Those services believed to be far behind their bug programmes are understood to be struggling to find the cash to tackle the problem properly.

The transport and food sectors will be largely commended in Action 2000's report but attention will be drawn to the state of international air traffic control systems and food suppliers from overseas.

Local councils also will be named as a problem sector with up to one in four in England and Wales behind schedule because they started too late. This could lead to traffic lights and street lights not working in many towns and cities, raising concerns about safety.

However, the main area of concern to Action 2000 and the government is still the state of readiness of small companies. Up to 120,000 firms employing less than 50 staff are considered to be behind schedule. More than 40% of these have been rated red on Action 2000's list, which means that 800,000 jobs could be affected.

Cruickshank does not believe it is too late for small companies to act, with more efficient bug fixes hitting the market every day. But to combat the problem he launched a national mentoring programme last week with some of Britain's biggest businesses. The companies, which claim to have solved their own bug problems, include Lloyds TSB and Sainsbury.

Cruickshank said: "We have brought the big guns in now to help the smaller companies. With this sort of company accounting for up to a third of Britain's gross domestic product it is very important that we make them aware quite how important it is that they ensure they are ready."

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-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), April 22, 1999

Answers

Earlier thread on this article: UK: Water firms fall behind in bug battle at http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000kME

-- No Spam Please (No_Spam_Please@anon_ymous.com), April 22, 1999.

I wouldn't be surprised if there were not a political element in criticising the (now privatised) water companies, as the Labour Govt has criticised the (now privatised) railways

I wonder if they'll be a mass takeover of non-compliant companies (either by Gov. or other predators) if they rpovide essential services or can be salvaged or have other assets

eg an Electric Company (selling not generating) could sell its customers (if it couldn't continue trading)

-- dick of the dale (rdale@coynet .com), April 22, 1999.

if the toilets stop flushing at the same time the faucets stop running,fecal coliform related diahreah type diseaseswill run rampant in any city...not only will city folk die...they'll die sh*tting themselves to death...messy

-- zoobie (zoob@aol.com), April 22, 1999.