Sydney Water to Spend $44M to Reduce Wastage

The corporation in charge of Sydney, Australia's water supplies has reportedly calculated its own daily wastage via leaks in mains pipes as 188 million liters a day — nearly 50 million gallons.

The Daily Telegraph said this amounted to 10.7 percent of all water drawn from Warragamba Dam by the corporation.

Utilities Minister Frank Sartor today said Sydney Water would spend up to $64 million (over 44 million U.S.) this year on further reducing leaks in the system.

"We've been working to reduce it," Sartor said. "We've reduced water losses by 36 million liters a day over the last four years, spending over $60 million a year."

Sartor insisted Sydney Water's losses were comparable with those of other utilities, and that its Active Leak Reduction Program aimed to achieve savings of 60 megaliters a day by 2005.

"The only way to fix every single leak in our system would be to tear up every street in Sydney and replace every one of our water mains — clearly an impractical proposition," he said in a statement.

He likened the job of repairing all Sydney Water pipes to that of painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

"... It is ongoing work that will never cease."

Source: Australian Associated Press