Britain may face droughts if water companies don’t fix leaks, says report

LEAKY pipes are threatening to cast large areas of the country into drought, officials have warned.

The Environment Agency last night challenged major water companies to improve their infrastructure as it said they were losing the equivalent of 20 million people’s water usage every day.

In a major report, the agency said three billion litres of water a day are lost through leakage. Combined with population growth and the effects of climate change this threatens to cause significant shortages in coming years.

It also called on individuals to use less water, calculating the average person currently gets through 140 litres in 24 hours.

The report found that in total, a third of water that is taken from the natural environment is wasted through leaks, wastage in treatment plants and in private homes. Emma Howard Boyd, the deputy chairman of the Environment Agency, said: “We need to change our attitudes to water use.

“It is the most fundamental thing needed to ensure a healthy environment, but we are taking too much of it and have to work together to manage this precious resource … We all have a duty to use water more wisely at home.”

The report warned that even with low population growth and less severe changes to the climate, there will still be significant water supply deficits by the 2050s, particularly in the South East.