Ensuring there's enough clean water for everyone

We supply around 2,600 million litres of treated water to taps across London and the Thames Valley every day.

The challenges we face

A range of pressures in our region will in the future make water an increasingly precious resource and highlight the need to control demand and look at new sources of supply.

In 2010 to 2015, the population in our area is due to swell by over 295,000, on top of the 8.5 million customers we already supply.

Climate change is due to mean longer, hotter summers, and more people in our region are living alone, which increases average usage per head.

Our draft business plan therefore includes a range of measures aimed at reducing demand for water and, where possible, increasing supplies.

Reducing leakage

We have hit our challenging leakage target for the past two years, but realise there is much more work to do. We therefore plan to continue our high-profile programme to replace our oldest, leakiest mains, mainly in London, where leakage is at its highest.

This work has already saved over 100 million litres per day - enough to supply more than 600,000 people.

We want to replace a total of over 2,400km (over 1,500 miles) of mains between 2010 and 2015.  

We also intend to continue our work to find and fix leaks, using innovation to improve detection methods. Overall, our target is to reduce leakage levels by a further 18 per cent.

Metering and water conservation

Importantly, we also intend to greatly increase the proportion of metered homes in our area. About 25 per cent of households in the region have a meter, which is below the national average.

Studies show customers who switch to a meter typically use five to ten per cent less water. We aim to help control demand for water by increasing the level of metered properties to 54 per cent.

Where possible, we will fit new meters where we replace water mains, reducing the overall installation costs.

In our research, customers indicated an awareness of the growing need to conserve supplies, and called for more education on how to save water.

Our plans include increasing the level of practical assistance and advice we offer customers, and carrying out more inspections of public and commercial buildings, to recommend how their owners can reduce water use.

Maintaining top-quality supplies

Even with the combined effects of the above measures, we still anticipate a shortfall in long-term supplies, and therefore propose to start building our planned reservoir near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. This will help supply Swindon, Oxfordshire and London.

We plan also to invest in maintaining the quality of our drinking water. Customers have told us, for example, that they want us to address localised issues of taste and appearance.

We will also carry out targeted replacement of lead pipework, and in some areas tackle a deterioration in the quality of untreated water we take from rivers or boreholes.   

Maintenance work is another key aspect of our plans, in order, for example, to reduce the number of unplanned interruptions to supplies.