Ritika Janiya
Water firms in England and Wales lost an astonishing amount of water through leaks last year-upwards of a trillion litres of water going to waste! That would be like one huge swimming pool with continuous leaks in it.
These numbers were reported by the water companies themselves in reports for 2023-24, showing that unbelievably, they lost millions of litres daily. The largest offender was Thames Water, losing approximately 570.4 megalitres daily. To give one an idea, a megalitre is one million litres. In more understandable terms, Thames Water lost in excess of 200 billion litres for the entire year. This was nearly a quarter of all the water it supplies. This despite this claimed “lowest ever leakage,” is still an enormous problem.
Thames Water is in serious trouble. It was put under special measures in July and is drowning in more than £15 billion of debt. In June the company said it had £19 billion worth of assets, such as pipes and treatment plants, which were failing and causing risks to public safety and the environment. United Utilities came next, leaking more than 175 billion litres, with Severn Trent not far behind with nearly 139 billion litres. Other companies also suffered from their share of leaks: Yorkshire Water lost 94.9 billion litres, Welsh Water had lost 90.8 billion litres, Anglian Water 66.4 billion litres, and Affinity Water 56 billion litres.
In the UK, the water supply is coming increasingly under pressure. The Environment Agency estimates that by 2050 an extra five billion litres a day will be required to meet demand. It even predicts that London may run out of water as soon as in the next 25 years!
Clean river campaigner Feargal Sharkey is seriously worried. He thinks that water companies should fix their leaks because every drop counts. Sharkey believes companies and their regulator, Ofwat, are not taking sufficient action to fix leaks. It is more expensive, in the short term, to fix leaks rather than just pump more water from existing sources. This he argues is similar to the situation with sewage: lack of political overview and poor regulation. The companies seem to him to be working on the principle of cutting costs and earning more, without giving much thought to the environmental impact or consumer concerns.
David Hall, a professor at Greenwich University, says that what the water companies should do is guarantee that water gets from sources to our taps, adding that “If a trillion litres are lost each year it means that pipes are not properly maintained”. It would make more sense to invest in the repair and maintenance of the pipe than it would in the long run reduce future costs for consumers.
The water companies also come under attack when people are angry about raw sewage being dumped into rivers and seas. Last March, it was disclosed that England’s water firms released raw sewage, which amounted to a total of 3.6 million hours in 2023. That’s more than double the amount from the previous year.
Water companies have paid £2.5 billion in dividends to shareholders over the last two years, taking the total payout since privatization in 1991 to £78 billion. This has fueled even more complaints about their lack of investment in water infrastructure.
Water companies are answering that with a slew of new investment announcements. For instance, Southern Water plans to recycle sewage and turn it into drinking water, courtesy of a £1.2 billion plan. Sharkey doesn’t think too much of such efforts, indicating this is an industry grasping at quick fixes:.
Water UK, the trade body for water companies, insists leakage is at its “lowest level on record.” They said companies were planning a record investment of £105 billion to guarantee a secure supply in the decades to come and cut leakage by a third by 2030. Thames Water is trying to improve things: it wants to upgrade 112 kilometres of main pipes in London and reduce leakage by 23 per cent over the next three years. They added that a third of their leaks are in pipes inside customers’ homes and are installing smart meters in order to protect future water supplies.
So, while there are efforts to fix the problem, a lot still needs to be done in terms of fixing the leaks and better managing our water supply. The situation is alarming, indeed, and everyone has to do its share in the saving of water.
