More water fire sprinklers needed… says MP  

Evidence suggests that where fire sprinkler systems have been fitted, fire deaths have been almost eliminated and  property damage  reduced by over 80%, with  a considerable reduction in the volume of water taken from service mains. Unfortunately, there is a key barrier to the installation of domestic automatic fire sprinkler systems. The Water Industry Act 1991 (as amended) does not allow for water used in domestic automatic fire sprinkler systems to be accommodated within the definition of ‘water taken for the purposes of fighting fires via a service pipe’. Therefore the only categorisation of such supplies is, by default, ‘water for non-domestic purposes’. The problem with this is that water for this category of use carries with it a lesser priority to the use for domestic purposes and, as a result, it is possible that the water supply for such sprinkler systems...