BELFAST, Northern Ireland, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Northern Ireland's water authority apologized for its handling of a recent water shortage that led to more than a million customer complaints, officials say.
Liam Mulholland, Northern Ireland Water's director of customer service, told a Parliament committee the scale of the problem had caught them off-guard, the BBC reported Thursday.
NIW chief executive Laurence Mackenzie resigned after mounting criticism of the company's response.
Mackenzie was due to appear before the Northern Ireland Assembly Committee for Regional Development hearing evidence about the crisis.
His decision not to attend was criticized by the committee chairman, Fred Cobain.
"This is a huge issue, not just for this committee and the Assembly, but for the thousands of people who have suffered," Cobain said.
"He has a responsibility to those people. As far as we are concerned, he should have been here and he is not."
During the shortage, as many as 40,000 homes and businesses in 74 towns were without water after a thaw followed icy conditions that caused pipes to burst.
