Thames Water commits €2.3 billion to leak detection

UK water utility firm Thames Water announced that it has deployed hundreds of night-time leak detectors in order to pinpoint leakages throughout the company’s 20,000 mile network of water pipes.

Thousands of loggers have been installed as well as an extra 600 members of staff after severe weather conditions prevented leak detection operations earlier in the year.

“We have hundreds of people every night out on the streets listening for leaks. You have to do it at night when it's quiet – that's how you find them,” said Thames Water chief executive Steve Robertson.

The company’s actions follows from its £11.7 billion (€13 billion) business plan for 2020-25, which includes a £2.1 billion (€2.3 billion) commitment into reducing leakage from its network by 15% by 2025 with further plans to halve it in the longer term.

Around 1,500 leaks are being fixed every week on average, which according to Thames Water is a 10-year high for the company.

According to the release, new techniques have been developed by the firm to better predict freezing weather as well as trialling leak detection innovations to repair pipes from the inside.

“Our ability to monitor and predict the sort of impact we have from the ‘Beast from the East’ is much better now than it was earlier in the year,” said Robertson.