Wasted water would fill 67,744 swimming pools
Enough water to fill 67,744 Olympic-sized swimming pools was lost due to burst and cracked pipes in the Severn Trent region in a year, new figures revealed today.
The company recorded daily losses of a massive 464 million litres (or 464 mega litres) in 2011/12.
Meanwhile, South Staffs Water recorded daily losses of 68m litres in the same year – enough to fill 9,928 average-sized Olympic pools over the 12 months.
Severn Trent, which was monitored by water regulator Ofwat after failing to hit targets, has spent £2.5m replacing water pipes to help reduce leakage in Staffordshire over the past year.
Company spokeswoman Sarah-Jayne O'Kane said the daily leakage figure is below the leakage target of 475 mega litres per day and a reduction of 6.5 per cent on the 2010/11 figure.
"We have worked tirelessly to put more focus on leakage, with staff working round the clock to find and fix leaks and highlight other sources of unaccounted for water, all of which add to the leakage figures," she said.
"We have a huge capital investment programme and we have spent £2.5m over the last year in Staffordshire alone on replacing water pipes to help reduce leakage.
"And we've managed to do this without increasing customer bills too much. Severn Trent customers still have the lowest average bills in the country and this year saw prices rise less than inflation."
South Staffs Water network director Colin Wayper said the company was hitting its leakage targets.
