Leakage rates fall to lowest level yet

Leakage has fallen by seven per cent across England and Wales to the lowest level recorded to date, with water companies nationwide exceeding their targets.

For 2019/20, daily leakage was reduced by 216 million litres (ML) of water across the country according to figures published by Water UK that show the current amount of water lost to leaking pipes is now 2,954 ML each day.

Portsmouth Water recorded the greatest reduction for the 2019/20 period of 19 per cent, followed by Affinity Water which saw its leakage rates drop by 15 per cent. The national average of water lost to leakages stood at at 112 ML/day at the end of AMP6.

Water UK chief executive Christine McGourty praised the sector’s “enormous progress”.

Ofwat tasked companies with the most significant leakage reduction for AMP7 and last month the Public Accounts Committee berated the sector for the amount of water being lost.

An Ofwat spokesperson said the regulator welcomes the progress made but added that this is “only a stepping-stone” to the broader target of halving leakage by 2050. They said: “We’re encouraged to see companies beginning to share information about best practice in finding and fixing leaks, and taking advantage of new opportunities provided by data analytics and new technology.  We hope they will do all they can to exceed the targets that have been set to 2025.”

Emma Clancy, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), said: “After a decade of complacency, the water industry finally appears to be showing the level of urgency we’ve been demanding on leakage.” She urged companies to step up the pace of improvements and underline to consumers why water is a precious resource.

Portsmouth Water, which reduced its leakage 19 per cent for the year to 23 ML/day, invested heavily in leak detection after the freeze-thaw event of 2018. Jim Barker, head of water resources, told Utility Week the company has plans to increase its use of pressure monitors, AI and digital twins to hunt leaks.

Affinity Water, which hit its targets of 162 ML/day, unveiled an arsenal of tools and technologies for battling leaky pipes which chief executive Pauline Walsh said will help the company reach the ambition of achieving world class levels by 2040 on top of the goal of 20 per cent reduction by 2025. These included introducing: step-testing; leak noise mapping to gather usage data and find irregularities; and high frequency correlators to pinpoint where issues are.

Daniel Woodworth, network strategy manager at SES Water spoke of the company’s pride at meeting its target for the 21st consecutive year and its top quartile performance of 23ML/day. He said: “We’re not complacent and are committed to going further to substantially and sustainably reduce the water lost from ours and our customers’ pipes for the long-term. That’s why we’re working with key partners like Vodafone, Royal Haskoning and Technolog to be the first water company to roll out an intelligent network across our entire supply area by next summer, combining cutting-edge technology and real-time data to identify and fix leaks faster than ever before.”

United Utilities’ leakage manager Hannah Wardle said the company is hiring 45 dedicated leakage detection engineers, including 20 apprentices, to rise to the challenges ahead. The company outperformed its target and remained above the industry average with 446ML/day. “We are investing in the latest technology plus a new generation of leakage detection professionals to make sure we can rise to the challenge and do even better,” Wardle said. “We’re installing 100,000 loggers directly onto our water pipe network – that’s the equivalent of one logger every quarter of a mile. These will listen for the sound of water escaping and alert our engineers so that we can fix the leaks quickly.”

South West Water, which has also met its targets since they were first set in 1996, said it is investing £50 million during AMP7 across its South West and Bournemouth regions. For the South West, leakage was cut to 84ML/day, and for Bournemouth, to 18 ML/day. The company undertook a complete overhaul of its leak tactics and saw repair productivity soar during lockdown as its teams were able to find and fix leaks in areas ordinarily too loud or busy. Over 2,300 leaks were fixed since April – almost 60 per cent faster than the previous year – getting the company off to a flying start for AMP7.

Iain Mcguffog, director of strategy & regulation at Bristol Water, said: “We’re proud to maintain our position as having the lowest leakage in the industry, having overachieved on our 2019/20 leakage target.

“Leakage is now nearly 11 per cent lower on the previous year, at 37 ML/day. It’s essential that customers see us doing our bit to reduce leakage so that we all play our part in helping the environment. Over the last year, we’ve changed contractors, began our biggest ever metering campaign and detected more leaks than ever before, to name a few.”

A spokesperson for South Staffs and Cambridge Water, which each outperformed their targets to achieve 69 ML/day and 13 ML/day respectively, said: “This is the result of the significant investment we have made in the areas of leakage detection and repair. It also gives us a strong foundation for the next five years, as we have a challenging target to reduce leakage in both regions by approximately 15 per cent over that time.”

Thames Water outperformed its leakage target this year after missing three previously. After much scrutiny the company lowered its rate to 595 ML/day, against a target of 606 ML/day. The company has made leakage a priority and attributed much of the reduction to its metering programme that alerts households to customer-side leaks far quicker.

Anglian Water, which exceeded its regulatory target to achieve 185 Ml/day, said it found and fixed around 48 per cent more leaks in the past year than in 2005 and the leaks are a quarter of the size they were then.

Head of leakage Sean McCarthy said: “We’ve reduced leakage by a third since privatisation and are proud to be sector leaders in driving down leaks. This year, we’ve achieved our best ever performance, achieving record low levels and exceeding our regulatory target for the ninth year running.  But we know there’s more to do, and we’re committed to continue waging a war on leakage. By 2025, our aim is to reduce levels by a further 16 per cent.”

A Southern Water spokesperson said: “We’re already taking bold steps to reduce leakage and we’re committed to reducing leaks by 15 per cent across our region over the next five years.

“Just last month we announced the world’s first mass roll-out of 700 new Internet of Things leakage devices in Southampton. This on top of a £3.2 million investment last year to increase our leakage teams.”