AN OFWAT report shows Thames Water loses more than 600 million litres of water a day through leaks.
The news comes as Thames Water’s own hosepipe ban comes into effect, placing usage restrictions on around 15 million customers
The report showed that 635.6 megalitres, which is 635.6 million litres, leaks from Thames Water infrastructure each day.
This is equivalent to 254 Olympic-sized swimming pools, or 7,945,000 baths.
The GMB union has campaigned for the privatisation of water provision to be reversed and put back into public ownership.
Andy Prendergast, GMB’s national secretary, said: “From today, 15 million people across the South East can no longer use their hosepipe, meanwhile every single day, Thames Water wastes enough water to have a hosepipe on for more than 70 years.
“You could have had a hosepipe on constantly since before the Queen was on the throne and you still wouldn’t have used as much as Thames Water wastes in just 24 hours.
“Instead of spending money to fix the leaky infrastructure, they’re showering directors with eye-watering sums– it’s jaw-dropping incompetence and greed.
“Last year, Thames Water directors received more than £4 million in bonuses, a rise of 67% from the year before.
The highest paid director received £1.5 million alone.
“Privatising water has been a disastrous failed experiment, it’s time to bring this essential natural resource back into public hands.”
A spokesperson for Thames Water said the company is doing “everything it can” to fix the leaks.
Cathryn Ross, strategy and regulatory affairs director at Thames Water told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “We totally accept we need to do better on fixing leaks, that’s why we’re fixing more than 1,100 leaks every week.
“We are not where we need to be, we have a lot of work to do to fix Thames Water.”
