North West Water was a water supply, sewage disposal and sewage treatment company serving North West England. It was established as the North West Water Authority in 1973, and became North West Water plc in 1989, as part of the privatisation of the water industry in England and Wales. In 1995, it merged with NORWEB (the former North Western Electricity Board) to form

United Utilities United Utilities Group plc (UU) is the United Kingdom's largest listed water company. It was founded in 1995 as a result of the merger of North West Water and NORWEB. The group manages the regulated water and waste water network in North West En ...

North West Water Authority

The North West Water Authority was one of ten regional authorities created by the Water Act 1973. It was formed from the merger of statutory water undertakings, local sewerage boards and three river authorities, these being the Mersey and Weaver River Authority, the Lancashire River Authority and the Cumberland River Authority. The water undertakings subsumed into North West Water authority included:The North West Water Authority Constitution Order 1973 (1973 No. 1287)

Municipal corporations

*Bolton Corporation *Carlisle Corporation * Liverpool Corporation *Manchester Corporation *St. Helens Corporation *Widnes Corporation

Water boards

The sewage treatment, sewerage and

water supply Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Th ...

and distribution arms of the authority were privatised in July 1989, becoming North West Water plc. The remaining regulatory functions of the authority, including pollution prevention, fisheries management,

flood control Flood management or flood control are methods used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters. Flooding can be caused by a mix of both natural processes, such as extreme weather upstream, and human changes to waterbodies and ru ...

, water resource management and a number of other ancillary functions, were transferred to the newly formed National Rivers Authority. The water supply sewage disposal and sewerage assets, which were previously held by the water authority and covered some 56,000

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s (220 sq miles), were transferred to North West Water at privatisation.

References

Former water companies of England Former nationalised industries of the United Kingdom Companies based in Cheshire {{watersupply-stub