Water leak that cost a third of a million litres to be finally fixed

SOUTH West Water has promised action over a leak which has seen thousands of gallons of precious water disappearing down a drain in a town centre for more than eight months.

The leak, at the bottom of Colley End Road, Paignton, has seen water flowing away down the road since last Christmas, residents say.

Now the water authority says help is at hand at last. One neighbour said: “It is a considerable water leak, and it has been leaking since before Christmas 2021.

“I phoned the water board nearly two weeks ago. This took an hour and I was assured that someone would be out to look at it within three hours. Well, surprise, it’s still running into the nearby drain.

“It’s awful when we are being asked to be careful as we are in a drought situation.”

Another said: “I reckon there must be about a litre going down that drain every minute, so that’s more than 1,400 litres a day. Since last Christmas that’s more than a third of a million litres. It has been going on too long.”

In the 12 months to March 2022, daily leakage across the SWW network amounted to 90.6million litres – enough water to fill 36 Olympicsized swimming pools every day. Last week South West Water warned that continuing dry weather and high demand meant a hosepipe ban. will come into force on August 23.

South West Water said the Paignton

leak was on a private supply pipe and negotiations had been going on for “a number of months”. A spokesman said: “Unfortunately, this leak is on a private pipe, outside of South West Water’s network.

“However, we have offered to repair the leak for free and we have only recently received permission to do so. We will be urgently carrying out the fix on the private pipe, now

we have received all necessary permissions.”

Around 30% of leaks occur on customer side pipes, says SWW. The authority says it works closely with customers to detect and repair leaks on the property, and is currently doing more of this for free alongside discounted “find and fix” services for business customers.

The spokesman added: “We have

deployed the latest AI and satellite technology alongside increasing the numbers of leak detection colleagues. We are now finding and fixing up to 2,000 leaks a month. Customers can report a leak online or at a free helpline on 0800 230 0561.

The spokesman added: “As part of our plans for the future, we’re targeting another 15% reduction in leakage by 2025.”