Billion litres of water lost every day

SCOTTISH Water should be fined over the "profligate" waste of one billion litres of treated water a day, angry MSPs demanded last night.

The state-owned firm has already spent more than £2bn of taxpayers' cash replacing pipes, but every 24 hours, water treated at a cost of £190,000 continues to leak into the ground. Two years ago Scottish Water promised a "historic drive" to crack down on the waste, but it has missed the target set by the industry watchdog by a staggering 44 million litres daily – enough to fill 17 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

MSPs say the waste – nearly half of all water being treated in reservoirs – is also causing a heavy environmental price to be paid because of the energy used in the cleaning process. The regulatory body that oversees the water industry in Scotland has now described the wastage as "profligate".

The new figures also come as water rates payers face a near 4% rise in their bills from this April, taking the average rate to £310 a year.

Homeowners have also been hit in recent years by roadworks across the country caused by Scottish Water's refurbishment programme. The targets to plug the leaks were set in 2006, when the Water Industry Commission for Scotland ordered Scottish Water to cut its leakage from 1.17 billion litres to 960 million litres. However, it only reduced it to 1,004 million litres, missing the target by 44 million litres. A target of 855 million litres per day for this year is now highly unlikely to be achieved.

Labour MSP David Stewart, who raised the matter with the regulators, said: "This is an appalling state of affairs. I am concerned by the climate change problems – it seems we are using power to treat double the amount of water that we actually need.

"There should be more financial sanctions in the system to ensure that Scottish Water is much more efficient in future."

Scots Tory deputy leader Murdo Fraser added: "Scottish Water's record in this is absolutely abysmal and has been so for many years. Maybe it is time sanctions were considered."

The leakages have also been slammed by Scotland's water commissioner, Alan Sutherland. He told MSPs: "

We asked Scottish Water to improve its rates of leakage in 2006-07 to 960 million litres a day, and then to 855 million litres a day after that. To put that 855 million litres in perspective, it is around the same level that Thames Water was being heavily criticised for last year, in absolute amounts of leakage."

With the estimated cost of each litre of water costing 0.19p, the leakages theoretically cost £190,760 every day.

Scottish Water defended its record last night, insisting that it had been restoring the pipe network at record speed, and that it had gone some way to meeting the regulator's target.

But it still falls well short of water companies in other parts of the UK and Europe.

A Scottish Water spokeswoman said: "We are committed to hitting our economic level of leakage. We did report a reduction of 100 million litres per day, which was within 5% of the Commission's target for 2006/07."

LEADER: Is it not the result of the overly cosy system in Scotland which, alone in the UK, continues to operate a publicly owned water network?