A Colchester water sector business has signed an innovative five-year partnership to help keep Yorkshire Water’s customers connected during unforeseen events.

Interruptions to the normal supply of water from the tap, which could be caused by burst pipes, unexpected asset failures, or planned maintenance, can have a significant impact on households and businesses like care homes, hospitals, manufacturers and food and drink producers.

In an effort to mitigate interruptions to supply and ensure households and businesses always have a supply of clean water, Yorkshire Water has pioneered a landmark partnership with the UK’s leading alternative water supply (AWS) specialist to gives its millions of customers peace of mind.

Water Direct stands prepared to deliver significant quantities of drinking water where it is needed during emergencies, or when planned maintenance works could impact supplies to customers.

Tom Carter, Manager of Emergency Preparedness & Response at Yorkshire Water, said: “Our customers rely on us to provide safe water for their homes and businesses, and this industry-leading partnership is key in helping us to keep Yorkshire’s water flowing and give them peace of mind that they’ll be able to access water if incidents occur.”

Adam Johnson, CEO at Water Direct, added: “Yorkshire Water must be commended for being trailblazers in emergency response. We are extremely proud to be their partner in this exciting venture.”

In what sets a new industry standard, Water Direct will guarantee that a first-response team and water tanker will be on-site for Yorkshire Water to support its affected customers within 90 minutes of an incident. If required, they also have the capability to rapidly scale their response with additional tankers on standby.

Water Direct, which is leading the way in helping to advance the AWS industry in the UK, will manage all aspects of Yorkshire Water’s AWS requirements. This includes tankering of water supplies for both emergency incidents and planned interruptions, the provision and distribution of bottled water during incidents and responsibility for doorstep deliveries to customers on its Priority Services Register.

The contract will focus on Water Direct’s sector-leading capabilities including its recently expanded fleet of tankers equipped with specialist variable speed pumping systems for safe network injections. Yorkshire Water will also benefit from Water Direct’s industry-leading, real-time digital tanker geolocation monitoring and data audit trail capabilities.

All of this will support Yorkshire Water to meet its regulatory performance metrics; including its C-MEX rating and scale of Interruptions to Supply, which are indicators used across the water sector to measure the performance of utility companies.

Initially the contract spans five years, with an option for a three-year extension. It is central to the delivery of Yorkshire Water’s strategic AMP8 programme for 2025-2030, for which it has submitted plans to Ofwat of an £8.2bn investment – it’s biggest ever – to improve network resilience, customer experience, and its impact on the environment.

For Water Direct the new contract is a vital step in its ongoing mission to reshape the provision of alternative water supply services in the UK. Over previous decades alternative water supply has usually been considered a reactive service, responding to emergency events.

However, since entrepreneur Adam Johnson took the helm three years ago, he has shifted the company’s strategic focus to building long-term, proactive partnerships with the company’s utility and commercial customers.

He added: “Water Direct has a long and proud record in the sector. Now we are leading the way in transforming how utilities think about this issue, how they protect themselves, all while delivering better value to them.”

In the past year Water Direct has delivered more than 150.5m litres of water using its fleet of 37 tankers and stores more than 4m litres of bottled water at sites across the UK.

The company continues its mission to help transform AWS through the investment and development of new services and technologies, designed to keep households and businesses connected to a clean water supply even in the most challenging circumstances.