A WATER company that has slapped a hosepipe ban on thousands of families in Hampshire is wasting 98.5million litres of water every day, according to a union.

GMB Union said Southern Water is wasting water equivalent of 1.2 million bathtubs and 39 Olympic-sized swimming pools in every 24 hours.

Similarly, South East Water is leaking 9.4million litres of water day - equivalent of 1.1million bathtubs and 38 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to GMB Union.

The figures have been released to highlight the amount of water leaked by five big water companies – Thames, Southern, South East, South West and Yorkshire - while they are imposing a hosepipe ban across the country.

Currently, the centre of Basingstoke does not have a hosepipe ban, but Andover and the surrounding areas of Basingstoke is covered by the restrictions.

READ MORE: South East Water enforces hosepipe ban - but not for Basingstoke

GMB said the five companies together waste 1.2billion litres of water every day – equivalent of 16million bathtubs or 500 Olympic sized swimming pools.

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

GMB said it 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.”

A Southern Water spokesperson said: “Tackling leakage is a high priority for us. We can’t tell our customers not to use hosepipes if we are not doing our part.

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“Last year we fixed 22000 leaks and in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight where we have a hosepipe ban is in force, we’re repairing 250 a week. Importantly we have installed 7,000 acoustic loggers across our network which detect and pinpoint leaks and 100 of the Hampshire repairs come from this data.

“These leaks are often on major mains buried deep underground and are invisible on the surface but can lose far more water than the visible leaks from communication pipes close to the surface. In the Southampton area, where the technology was first rolled out this has helped bring down leakage to under 10 per cent.”

South East Water’s chief executive officer David Hinton said: “We have committed to reducing the amount of water lost to leaks on our network and in customers’ homes by 15 per cent between 2020 and 2025 (based on our annual performance). We have continued to reduce the amount of leaks on our network year on year and have beaten our leakage target, set by the regulator, for the last 13 years.

“During 2020-21 we exceeded our target and we are on course to meet the 15 per cent reduction by 2025.  We have achieved this using a variety of methods including smart water logging, targeted mains replacement and the use of satellite leak detection imagery.

“To make sure we continue to beat and improve our leakage targets we'll be investing millions over the next two years and have ambitious plans to halve the amount of leakage by 2050 to 44 million litres a day. 

“This investment will go towards further innovative technology to help us identify even the smallest of leaks. We’ll also aim to minimise leaks on the customers’ side using smart meters and loggers."