WATER PAGES
“A digging boom is heading our way. With more projects commencing and more site activity set to take place over the coming months, there is a critical need for all parties to know what is beneath the ground.”
shows that our safe digging education is getting through and allows the UK’s underground networks and its people to be better protected than ever.
“Unfortunately, this is not the case for some water networks who continue to miss out on being part of this safe digging movement. For a sector that’s under pressure from Ofwat to reduce leakages by 17 percent and with leakage from third party damages now being classified as the asset owner’s responsibility, that seems a needless risk. Our data shows that in 2021 and beyond there is going to be a ‘digging boom’ – there were 904,120 searches relating to future projects! If people don’t know where water pipes are, how are they going to avoid them? I firmly believe that this is going to be a major issue for water companies moving forward.”
However, the water industry is aware of the need to perform asset searches, because according to the report, it is the second most active sector when it comes to using the portal to search for underground assets prior to commencing its own digging work.
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The industry and its contractors accounted for 825,322 requests, a 39 percent increase on the previous year. This made up 27 percent of the total searches performed in 2020 and was second only to the telecoms sector in terms of the volumes of searches completed.
Digging Up Britain 2021 also explores the reason excavation work is taking place. Similar to previous years, utility works top the list with more than 2.23 million searches, a three percent jump on 2020. This is perhaps unsurprising given that the telecoms and water sectors were responsible for the most searches. Agricultural projects grew, rising by 63 percent across the 12 months, with searches by private individuals jumping by 34 percent.
This suggests that the awareness of safe digging practices is growing not just among core construction and contractor communities but also amongst the wider general public.
Richard Broome concludes: “We’re | August 2021 |
www.draintraderltd.com
continuing to drive home the importance of safe digging, and we have now reached a stage where performing a search before digging is second nature to the majority. In fact, a search passes through our service every 3 seconds during the average working day, which is more often that we blink– so, clearly the message is truly getting through.
“A digging boom is heading our way. With more projects commencing and more site activity set to take place over the coming months, there is a critical need for all parties to know what is beneath the ground.
“This is why we want the water industry to get on board and make their infrastructure information available on a collaborative portal. After all, it’s only by collaborating with the other utility companies to give all those digging a full picture of what lies beneath the ground, that needless strikes will be minimised and accidents avoided. Those that do will be better able to protect their assets from third party damage, minimise needless leaks, manage risk and resources, and address the challenges of PR19.”
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