MILLIONS of litres of water are thought to have been lost through a leak which has not been fixed despite being reported five months ago.

Eight households living in Bounty Road, Basingstoke, have been suffering from low water pressure in their homes since March, resulting in an estimated loss of six million litres of water.

Martin Caldwell, a landlord who owns two of the properties affected, labelled the situation as “a criminal waste” particularly given the current situation with water supplies.

He said he first reported the problem to South East Water in March, explaining: “It had been identified before then because another resident had called up to say they had no water. They patched up the problem but never solved the leak.”

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Martin has repeatedly contacted South East Water to try and resolve the problem, but said many of his calls and emails have gone unanswered.

“All the houses have one pipe and it’s a steel pipe and it’s about 70 years’ old. It’s rusty and is leaking,” he said, adding: “The new tenants in my property moved in and said there’s a problem with the water. They can’t flush the toilet upstairs.”

South East Water did visit Bounty Road to check the water pressure, and reported to Martin that 24 litres of water was being lost every minute.

“If you add that up from April it’s about six million litres lost, going down the drains,” he said, adding: “It’s a criminal waste given the current climate.”

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The landlord enlisted the help of Conservative borough councillor Sam Jeans, who has also been in touch with South East Water to try and resolve the problem.

Cllr Jeans said the water company promised it would send someone out on June 24, but no one came.

She said: “We are being asked to save water but the biggest waste comes from the water company not fixing leaks, especially when it’s been reported. No one is resolving it. It’s a sorry state of affairs that I have had to go to the paper. They promised they would come out at the end of June and they didn’t.”

Paul Mann, distribution manager for South East Water, said: “The leak residents are seeing on Bounty Road is caused by a leak on a private pipe and under usual circumstances it is the responsibility of the landowner to repair.

"We did issue a waste water notice and have now stepped in to do  the repairs to stop excessive amounts of water being wasted.

“Repairs have been completed at a number of properties since the issue was first reported and have a further repair scheduled for 15 August. Once this has been completed we’ll be able to test the rest of the supply.”

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