Our complex underground water network has more than 9,000 miles of pipes, transporting an average of 521 million litres of drinkable water to 2.3 million customers every day.
With that amount of pipework and joints of different sizes withstanding pressure 24/7, it is inevitable some will leak or burst.
Sometimes the leak can be small, others can be very big and cause a water spout or running water which sometimes leads to low pressure or a loss of supply. Either way, we want to fix them as quickly as we can.
During periods of hot weather the number of leaks and bursts we find from our routine detection work and from customers reporting them to us goes up. This is because ground movement around the pipes can cause damage. As well as that, leaks are more visible in the dry months, so they are easier to spot.
Summer 2022 has seen more leaks and bursts reported to us that ever before. In Kent and Sussex alone we had nearly 2,000 reported to us in two months – an increase of 50%.
We’re really grateful to our customers for letting us know where they see leaks and burst– so thank you.
By reporting them on our In Your Area map(opens in a new tab), you are supporting our specialist teams who are out and about checking our vast network. They even work at night because that’s when demand for water is lowest and they can see unusual patterns which may indicate a leak or burst.
In addition to our specialist engineers identifying leaks, we use satellite technology which can scan up to 15 per cent of our total water network per year.
These scans can cover a very large area at a time and help us to spot leaks which our technicians can investigate and repair. Satellite technology is particularly effective in built-up areas and is now widely used across the water industry.
But we can’t fix every leak and burst straight away. We have to prioritise the most urgent – where customers are without water for example, or the leak is causing a hazard.
Some parts of our network are within very busy sections of road or near railway lines, so we need to work with other authorities to keep disruption to a minimum for the whole community.
To make sure we pinpoint the next tier for hasty repair, we have a leak surgery team who meet twice a week. This brings together our customer service team, our operational team and our contractors. Doing this has meant we can troubleshoot and find solutions.
We’ll always have leaks and bursts on our network, but we are committed to using new technology to find and fix them as quickly as we can.
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