Southern Water's war on leaks is delivering a dramatic fall in the volume of water being lost - a new anti-leak taskforce has brought down the volume of water leaking from Southern Water's 14,000 km network of water pipes by 15 million litres a day since February.

The water company is using intelligent network software and acoustic sensors backed up by the recruitment of 30 new ‘find and fix' teams.

Phillip Tapping, Southern Water's Demand Manager commented:

"We have an excellent historical record on leaks and we have always been at or near the top of the industry league table."

"But it's no secret that 2018 was one of the worst we faced due to the twin hammer blows of the freeze/thaw event in March 2018 and the prolonged heatwave in the summer."

"Leak technicians are often looking for leaks across hundreds of properties or kilometres of water pipe but I believe our new approach and additional manpower is putting us firmly on course to deliver our promise to cut leakage by 15 per cent between 2020 and 2025."

The 2018 freeze/thaw event caused an unprecedented number of bursts while heatwaves cause the ground to crack and shift breaking pipe joints.

This year an additional £6.4 million is being spent on leakage over the annual spend of £16 million. The 30 new find and fix teams bring the total to 190 from 100 just two years ago.

The leakage reduction plan includes investment in thousands of new acoustic loggers which can hear the tell-tale sonic signature of a pipe starting to leak. Some 4000 have already been installed across the network. Newly trained technicians will be using new data systems to interrogate the pipe network to ensure the find and fix teams are precisely targeted. Other technology used by Southern Water to tackle leaks includes SmartBall - a sensor system pushed through the network by water pressure to find leaks.

Table: Breakdown of leak reductions since February by area (millions of litres)

Leaks across the network had risen to just under 109 million litres a day in February but the task force has cut this to 93.8 million litres.

Ben Earl, Water Efficiency Manager, said customers would welcome the news:

"It's just been confirmed that Southern Water customers are once again near the top of the league for water efficiency using an average of 130 litres a day.

"We are going to go on asking them to do more and giving them the support needed as part of our long term Target 100 plan and we won't deserve their help unless we can show that we are doing our part as we cut leakage from our network."