Water companies of the United Kingdom

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 48. Chapters: Former water company predecessors of Thames Water, Thames Water, London water supply infrastructure, Thames Conservancy, Metropolitan Board of Works, Joseph Bazalgette, Great Stink, Yorkshire Water, Northumbrian Water, Northumbrian Water Group, Metropolitan Water Board, London sewerage system, Broad Street cholera outbreak, Severn Trent, Thames Water Ring Main, New River, York Buildings Company, Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company, Anglian Water, United Utilities, Abbey Mills Pumping Stations, River Lee Flood Relief Channel, United Kingdom water companies, Scottish Water, Welsh Water, Crossness Pumping Station, Southern Water, Veolia Water Southeast, Grand Junction Waterworks Company, Thames Water Desalination Plant, Pennon Group, Northern Outfall Sewer, Water Industry Act 1991, Sutton and East Surrey Water, South Staffordshire Water, Lambeth Waterworks Company, Seething Wells, Chelsea Waterworks Company, Wessex Water, Veolia Water Central, East London Waterworks Company, Metropolitan Commission of Sewers, Kelda Group, West Middlesex Waterworks Company, Thames Tideway Scheme, Southern Outfall Sewer, Bournemouth & West Hampshire Water, River Lee Diversion, South West Water, Bristol Water, Portsmouth Water, North West Water, Colne Valley Water, Biwater, South East Water, Kemble Water Limited, Cholderton and District Water Company, Thames Water Abingdon Reservoir, Hartlepool Water, Veolia Water East, Mid Kent Water. Excerpt: London's water supply infrastructure has developed over the centuries in line with the expansion of London and now represents a sizeable infrastructure investment. For much of London's history, private companies supplied fresh water to various parts of London from the River Thames and the River Lea. A crisis point was reached in the mid 19th century with outbreaks of cholera and general problems arising from extraction of water from the polluted Tideway, and major new facilities were built up river at Hampton and Molesey. After merger and nationalization into the Metropolitan Water Board, and later reprivatization, their modern descendent Thames Water still runs London's water supply infrastructure. Until the late 16th century, London citizens relied on the River Thames, its tributaries, or one of around a dozen natural springs for their water supplies. In 1247 work began on building the Great Conduit from the spring at Tyburn. This was a lead pipe which led via Charing Cross, Strand, Fleet Street and Ludgate to a large cistern or tank in Cheapside. The city authorities appointed keepers of the conduits who controlled access so that users such as brewers, cooks and fishmongers would pay for the water they used. Wealthy Londoners living near the a conduit pipe could obtain permission for a connection to their homes, but this did not prevent unauthorised tapping of conduits. Otherwise - particularly for households which could not take a gravity-feed - water from the conduits was provided to individual households by water carriers or "cobs". Records of frequent drownings indicate that many poorer citizens collected water from the Thames or nearby streams running into the Thames. The Grand Conduit system was extended over the centuries and in the 15th century was supplemented by a conduit from springs at Paddington, and another at Highgate which supplied Cripplegate. In 1582, Dutchman Peter Morice (died 1588) developed one of the first pumped water supply syste...