Water leaks cost Scots £800,000 a day

Published on 08/02/2004 00:00

MORE water than ever is leaking from Scotland’s antiquated pipe network despite a massive programme to upgrade the system.

A year after Scotland on Sunday revealed that a billion litres of purified drinking water were being lost a day, it has emerged that the situation has got worse.

An extra 50 million litres a day is pouring from rotting pipes despite the millions of pounds already spent on repairs and replacements. The value of the lost water - which is pure enough to drink - is estimated at 800,000 a day.

The revelation is particularly likely to anger consumers because it follows the announcement last week of increases in water charges of up to 5% for many households, a figure three times the rate of inflation.

According to figures from Scottish Water, 1.133bn litres of water are lost each day in the water system. That figure compares to 1.077bn litres which were lost each day according to a report published by the Scottish Executive’s environment department in February of last year.

Scottish Water, which was created in 2002, has blamed the leaks on Scotland’s ageing water infrastructure.

Many of Scotland’s water pipes and sewers were built in the Victorian era or in the years immediately following the First World War and they are showing their age.

The vast majority of leaks in the water supply are underground and difficult to spot and fix. Many have come about because alloys which were used to fix joints between pipes have been damaged through the years by acidic soils, changes in temperature, or even reactions with other materials, such as certain types of concrete.

Leaks are a double blow for consumers, because they mean more water than necessary is being treated, which adds to charges. In addition, leaks mean water pressure is reduced, affecting showers in homes and sometimes forcing people to install expensive pumps.

A spokesman for Scottish Water said the organisation was aware of the millions of litres being lost each day and was investing 2bn over the next three years in an effort to fix the leaks.

Despite the work, the amount of water being lost is actually increasing, meaning that 290m worth of purified water is literally going down the drain each year. In England and Wales, where the water industry was privatised in the 1980s, water is cheaper and the rate of leakage typically lower.

The spokesman added: "The fact is that while we are tackling the problems which are a legacy of the lack of investment, other pipes in the system are decaying all the time. Other parts of the UK received massive investment 15 years ago and we have had less time to invest.

"We are in the middle of a programme to replace 1,600 miles of pipes, which is the distance between Edinburgh and Bucharest, and have already laid 280 miles of them. We are also spending 6m on computer modelling to allow us to identify leaks and deal with them more efficiently. A lot of work is going on."

No one from the Scottish Executive was available for comment.