Water industry voices common carriage fears

Water regulator Ofwat has told water companies to prepare to share their mains with other suppliers in the wake of new legislation promoting competition in the utilities. But the industry fears that imposition of "common carriage" could compromise the quality and consistency of supplies. It also likely to increase the workload of the already overstretched Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) and pose difficult legal problems over establishing liability for quality incidents.