Ms Margaret Attridge:

We also have support from contractors, where needed. In many areas, our own teams might do smaller repairs and we would bring in contractors to do larger repairs. That may be the case. It varies across the country. The support network is there, whereby we bring in third-party contractors to support us with a repair.

With regard to the communication, that is a matter we are continuously trying to improve to get immediate updates back from the field. Part of our transformation programme is to roll out handheld units to all our water network operators so that on locating and investigating a burst, they can provide information from the field. That will go through automatically to our contact centre, which will then send text messages to all customers in the area, as well as notifications to TDs, to the effect that there is a burst in a particular location. We know we have to improve that communication trail from the field and it is something we will be working to improve.