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Reports on water companies
International comparisons - leakage In England and Wales, leakage is defined as the loss of water from the distribution network which escapes other than through a controlled action. It is the sum of distribution losses from the company's distribution network and supply pipe losses from consumers' pipes (see figure 6). Leakage is affected by:
We show leakage in terms of megalitres per day (Ml/d), litres per property per day (l/prop/d) and cubic metres per kilometre per day (m3/km/d). Although these measures are not ideal for making direct comparisons between companies, we believe they provide some explanation, such as rurality or urbanisation, for differences in performance. Allowing for variables such as average system pressure or the need to maintain a healthy resource position can explain further variance between companies' performance. Companies in England and Wales must meet their economic level of leakage (ELL). This is the level at which it would cost more to reduce leakage further than to produce water from another source. We expect companies to have different ELL depending on their individual circumstances. More details of the England and Wales companies' leakage performance was published last year in our 'Security of supply 2006-07' report. We have recently reported the outcome of our reviews into alternatives to the ELL and inclusion of externalities in the ELL calculation. We do not express leakage figures in terms of a percentage of distribution input because we consider it to be misleading. For example, distribution input in the USA can be twice as high per property as it is in England and Wales. Therefore, the same level of leakage expressed as percentages would be reported differently for the two countries. Similarly, an increase in water use, for example because of a sustained hot, dry period, will appear to lead to an improvement in leakage levels when, in reality, the volume of water lost has not decreased. The European Environment Agency has published some levels of leakage as a percentage of distribution input across Europe but these need to be interpreted with this caveat in mind.  |
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Leakage |
Leakage - results for 2006-07
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