Leaky water pipes in Essex are losing millions of litres of water every day.
A parliamentary committee has warned parts of the country will run out of water within the next 20 years if water company’s do not address the issue.
Data from OFWAT, responsible for regulating England and Wales’ water industry, has revealed Essex and Suffolk Water loses 7,592 litres of water per kilometre of pipe every day.
That equates to 79 litres of water leaked per property per day.
The worst performing company, Thames Water, is losing 22,200 litres per km of pipe.
Around 20 per cent of the public water supply, equivalent to 3 billion litres, is lost to leakage every day.
This is down from a high of over 4.5 billion litres a day in the early 1990s but higher now than it was 20 years ago.
Demand for water is about 14 billion litres per day in England and Wales.
Due to rising demand and falling supply of water the Environment Agency now estimates that England will need an extra 3.6 billion litres per day by 2050 to avoid shortages.
The Public Accounts select committee has further warned that some areas are facing water shortages during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A spokesperson from Essex & Suffolk Water said: “Essex & Suffolk Water have one of the lowest levels of leakage in the country per household and we have committed to reduce our current leakage target by 17.5 per cent between 2020 -2025.
“We have invested £3m in state of the art noise loggers, used satellite imaging to find leaks, increased our field crews to find and fix leaks and used advanced analytics to better predict the location of leaks.
“Our £150million investment into the Abberton Scheme and the expansion of Abberton Reservoir supports our 40 year Water Resources Management Plan. The plan includes demand forecast and confirms we have a sustainable supply of water to one and a half million people in Essex & Suffolk for many years into the future.”
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