The water industry regulator Ofwat was under pressure yesterday to fine Thames Water after the company, which serves 8 million customers in the south-east of England, again failed to meet its targets to reduce leakage. News that Thames had failed to hit its leakage targets for the third year in a row came as the company announced it had increased pre-tax profits by almost a third to £346m.
With lawns going brown through lack of water across London, consumer groups acted with fury at the news that Thames is still losing almost 900m litres a day through its poorly maintained and ageing pipe network. The company is increasing water bills by 24% over the next five years.
Ofwat was scathing of Thames's performance on leakage. "Given its current leakage performance we are concerned that the company may not meet future leakage targets or its security of supply commitments," it said in a statement. "Customers are paying the higher prices Thames Water has been allowed to charge, an average increase of 24% over 2005-10, excluding inflation, without getting all the benefits the company has promised to deliver. This is unacceptable."
Ofwat can fine water companies up to 10% of their turnover for failing to meet leakage targets, though that power has yet to be used. Last year Thames's turnover rose by more than 18% to £1.4bn. Thames, which has already imposed a hosepipe ban on its domestic customers and which is now seeking a drought order in London which would allow it to impose more draconian cuts on water use, said leakage amounted to 894m litres a day compared to its Ofwat-set target of 860m litres. The 34m-litre shortfall equates to almost 14 Olympic sized swimming pools.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1803079,00.html
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