Mars water search satellites are used to trace leaks in pipe network

SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY which has previously been used to detect the presence of liquid on other planets has been harnessed in Yorkshire to trace leaks in the county’s network of underground water pipes.

Yorkshire Water said the first stage of a trial using the technology had been “hugely successful” and it would now conduct more tests.

The company partnered with an Israeli firm to conduct the trials, using equipment that has previously been employed to search for water on Mars.

It uses microwave imaging to detect the presence of leaks below ground.

Yorkshire Water said its “leakage team” in Huddersfield and Dewsbury had traced twice the number of leaks to those found by conventional methods, with a saving of half a million litres of water a day.

Jason Griffin, the firm’s leakage technology manager, said: “We have set ourselves a leakage reduction target of 40 per cent over the next seven years and we are hopeful satellites can play a role in helping us achieve that.

“We are thrilled with the results of the first trial and extremely excited about how satellites can help us find those burst pipes in remote locations.”

The second stage of the £300,000 project will concentrate on rural areas, and will produce images of trunk mains in remote areas that are hard to access by inspectors on the ground.

Last year, a national survey revealed that more than a fifth of the country’s water supply was lost before it reached homes.

In December, the regulator, Ofwat, set all the water companies a target of reducing leakage by at least 15 per cent by 2025, and two months ago its chief executive, Rachel Fletcher, called for “a game change on leakage” by saving 170bn litres a year – enough to supply Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff and Birmingham for a year.