Scottish Water criticised as leaks waste 924 million litres a day

Published on 20/10/2008 22:22

SCOTTISH Water has been criticised by its regulator over leaks and the speed at which investment projects are achieving results, it was disclosed today.

Sir Iain Byatt, chairman of the Water Industry Commission for Scotland, said that although the publicly owned utility had increased its spending, some results – such as improvements in drinking water quality – were slow in coming through.

Annual targets for leak reduction were also missed and the regulator said it was monitoring the situation "carefully".

Scottish Water has reduced its leakage levels in the past year from more than a billion litres a day to 924 million litres a day – but this is still short of its target of 855 million litres.

"This is the second year running that Scottish Water has missed our leakage target," the regulator said.

Sir Iain said: "We have expressed to Scottish Water our concern about the rate at which projects are being submitted for sign-off, as this will result in customers having to wait longer for the benefits promised to them."

And he added: "While Scottish Water is working with us to improve the way it measures leakage, it must take the action needed to tackle leakage."