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Thames, Southern, South East, South West and Yorkshire Water leaked equivalent of 16 million bathtubs or 500 Olympic sized swimming pools every 24 hours, say GMB Union

Five private water companies who‘ve slapped a hosepipe ban on millions of customers wasted 1.2 billion litres of water between every day last year.

By August 24 Thames Water, Southern Water, South East Water, South West Water and Yorkshire Water will all prohibit customers from using hosepipes.

But according to the latest figures, the companies’ pipes leaked the equivalent of almost 16 million bathtubs or more than 500 Olympic sized swimming pools every 24 hours.

In total, the five companies waster a massive 460 billion litres of water in the financial year 2020/21.

GMB has long campaigned for water to be brought back into public hands.

Andy Prendergast, GMB National Secretary, said:

“Tens of millions of people face a hosepipe ban while these privatised companies let more than 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools’ worth of water go down the plug hole every single day.

“It’s a disgrace that customers face a £1,000 fine as private water fat cats trouser millions, all the while failing to sufficiently tackle leakage and refusing to invest in the workforce.

“Privatising water has been a disastrous failed experiment, it’s time to bring this essential natural resource back into public hands.”