But Thames Water is still losing 275 Olympic swimming pools per day
Pressure from consumers and politicians is having a positive effect on Thames' leakage figures but the company is still losing 275 Olympic swimming pools of water (almost 700,000,000 litres) per day, says Syed Kamall, Conservative MEP for London.
The company - which provides water to 8.5 million people around London - has announced it has brought leakage figures down to 695 million litres per day - an improvement of around 120mld from a year ago.
In July 2006, water regulator Ofwat forced Thames to spend an extra £150 million on improvements to the water network after they failed to meet targets for leakage reduction. At the time, Thames was losing the equivalent of 350 Olympic pools per day.
Mr Kamall said,
"It is encouraging to see consumer and political pressure is finally paying off. These latest leakage figures are clearly moving in the right direction and Thames are to be congratulated for getting their act together.
"Thames is still losing over 275 Olympic swimming pools per day through leaky pipes. That figure is far too high, and we must continue to invest in new water mains over the coming years."
November 26, 2007