Yorkshire Water is investing £16 million in reducing leakage from its clean water network this year, as it seeks to hit a 15% reduction by 2030 and secure future water supplies.
The investment will be split across:
- £2.5m on advanced modelling and software to assist with leakage targeting and understanding customer demand for clean water
- £2.5m on acoustic loggers, which help colleagues to locate leaks
- £5m on assets that support pressure management and network optimisation to reduce the likelihood of leakage
- £3m to fix more leaks
- and £3m to onboard 100 extra colleagues to find and fix leaks, a large portion of which will be apprentices
Karen Atkinson, manager of leakage reduction at Yorkshire Water, said: “Reducing the number of leaks in our clean water network is really important to us, and to our customers, as we work towards a future with a secure water supply.
“We’re on track to meet our target of reducing leakage by 15% between 2020 and 2025, but we’re already looking beyond that, and want to reduce it by a further 12.7% by 2030.”
The investment is the first stage in a £38m leakage reduction plan over the next five years, which seeks to improve water conservation and efficiency.
Yorkshire Water is also investing £406m in replacing over 1,000km of mains across the region by 2030 – in a bid to further reduce leaks and bursts, is investigating additional boreholes for the extraction of more water for treatment, and is working on building new service reservoirs for the storage of clean water, with projects at Harton and Scotton underway.
After a very dry and warm start to 2025, Yorkshire Water is working hard to reduce leakage across the county, as well as monitoring the weather and carefully managing water supplies across the region.
Karen added: “While we have lots of proactive work to do to help us meet our targets and conserve water, customers can also play an important role in water conservation - reporting leaks that they spot in their areas is incredibly valuable to us. I’d encourage anyone who spots something that looks like a leak to reach out to us so that we can investigate and resolve it quickly.
“Customers can also save water in their homes and gardens with simple changes like taking a quick shower instead of a bath, using a watering can instead of a hose, and using a washing up bowl rather than loading the dishwasher.”
