Tackling Leakage in the South East

Southern Water is delivering the lowest level of leakage per property of all the water and sewerage companies in the UK.

The company's team of more than 120 leakbusters work round the clock to find and repair leaks on the company's 13,000 kilometres of water mains.

The team works with specialist acoustic equipment and even old fashioned listening sticks to find leaks - which are often hidden underground.

Near-silence is needed to hear the leaks, so a lot of work is carried out at night when traffic and noise is less of an intrusion.

The team has more than halved the amount of water lost through leaking pipes and driven leakage down well below our target level of 92 million litres each day.

As a result our leakage has been reduced to 82 million litres per day by:

• Attending 95% of visible leaks reported within an hour
• Repairing 98% of all visible leaks within 24 hours
• Repairing 17,757 leaks last year, nearly a quarter more than previously
• Surveying nearly 1,100 kilometres of trunk mains
• Doubling our leak detection team to 120 staff

We think if we ask customers not to waste water it is important we demonstrate that we value it as well.

Community-minded customers made nearly 15,000 calls to Southern Water last year to report leaks to help stop supplies being wasted.

Call our Freephone Leakline on 0800 820 999 to report leaks in your area.

You can view a day in the life of Southern Water's Leakage Team on our videos page.