More than a billion liters (264 million gallons) of drinking water are lost each day in Scotland through widespread leaks occuring before supplies reach customers, according to a recent report.
Published by the Scottish Executive, the water supply report for 2000/01 said that while Scottish homes and businesses use an average of 2.41 billion liters (636 million gallons) of water every day, about 45 percent of the water is lost through leakage. A spokeswoman said the figures were "a reflection on the poor state of Scotland's water mains."
The highest leakage rate occurs in the west of Scotland, where 630 million liters (166 million gallons) of water are lost every day. This equates to 53 percent of the total supply used in the area.
Scottish Water says it is spending £1.8bn ($2.86 billion) on a program to improve all of its services. A spokeswoman said many pipelines still date back to the 19th century.
"There is leakages and there is water going out and what we are left with is a network which suffered from a long time of underinvestment," she said. "We are currently making an assessment across Scotland of our water mains … We are fitting meters into the network and from those we can read the pressure levels and get a very strong picture of where leaks take place."
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said, "An extensive mains renewal program is under way. Prioritization within the program is based on a range of factors such as water quality, hydraulic performance, leakage, burst records, etc. … Where new water treatment is planned, the distribution mains are checked and all significant leaks are repaired before the works is commissioned."
Source: BBC News
