Yorkshire Water has been named as one of only two water companies in the UK to reduce leakage last year.

But the company is still having to cope with losing a staggering 267 million litres every day, , writes Suzanna Bain.

That’s the equivalent of about 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools every day.

The figures are based on the amount of leakage as a percentage of water supplied.

They are based on data supplied to Ofwat and show leakage in Yorkshire reduced by 0.41% in 2012-13 compared to 2011-12.

The only other water company in the UK to reduce its leakage over the same period was Severn Trent.

Last year Yorkshire’s leakage was 267 megalitres/day against a target of 297 megalitres per day. This was down on the year before when it was 274 megalitres/day.

One megalitre is a million litres of water.

Company officials say they are pleased with the results but are committed to further improvements.

“We’re pleased with this performance, which shows we reduced leakage by a further 7Mld* last year and out turned 30Mld below target, but we’re not resting on our laurels,” said Tony O’Shea, Yorkshire Water’s leakage manager.

“Water lost from the system is effectively water we have paid to treat and move around the supply system, without anyone getting any benefit from it, so we want to ensure this happens as little as possible,” he adds.

Yorkshire Water has changed the way it monitors, responds to and anticipates leakage in a bid to tackle the problem of ‘lost water’. It says it has invested millions in new technology, better network monitoring and higher standards of repair.

“We have various ways of detecting and anticipating leakage, including technology which alerts us to changes in pressure in some of our biggest pipes, as well as skilled technicians who can literally listen to a pipe to determine whether it’s leaking and how close to the leak they are,” explains Mr O’Shea.

“We do, however, need help from the people of Yorkshire to be our eyes and ears by reporting leaks when they see them, so we can respond to and fix them as soon as possible,” he adds.

Yorkshire Water maintains 19,500 miles of clean water pipes, which if laid end to end would reach to Australia and back.