WATER supplies in the North West have been declared safe from the millennium bug.

And electricity giant Norweb is almost ready for the year 2000, according to new reports.

North West Water is among the water companies nationally which have been given a blue classification under the Government's "traffic light" scheme.

That means no risk of material disruption has been identified from the problems which are expected to strike computers when the date changes from 1999 to 2000.

Norweb Distribution, which supplies electricity to 2.2million people across the region, is 90 per cent in the blue sector, with the remainder in amber, which means work is progressing on schedule.

Water watchdog Ofwat said that although North West Water was ready for the Year 2000, there was no room for complacency.

Director general of water services Ian Byatt said: "Customers can be assured that the industry has taken all the necessary steps to ensure that services will be maintained into the Year 2000 and beyond.

"We plan to carry out a third independent survey of the industry in September to ensure that companies maintain their blue status."

Martin Bradbury, who is leading Norweb's £45million Year 2000 programme, said: "We still have some work to do, but all those systems and processes that are essential to the delivery of normal service to our customers are now Year 2000 ready."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.