SCOTTISH WATER has been slammed by critics after it was revealed they lose a third of their fresh drinking water everyday through leaks.
The publicly owned company has admitted losing 548m litres of their 1.3bn litres of water daily despite advising customers customers to be more water efficient.
Customers are advised to use watering cans instead of hose pipes, showers instead of baths and not to leave water running when washing their hands.
This advice follows the company’s decision to hike prices by 2.8% earlier this year.
But now the company has found itself in hot water once again, as calls for it to be more efficient are made.
Alex Johnstone, the Conservative infrastructure spokesman said: “It’s the equivalent of the Dutch boy putting his finger in the dyke.
“This is a smokescreen from an organisation beset by inefficiency. That inefficiency could be addressed by the mutualisation of Scottish Water, which would also create hundreds of millions of pounds for the public purse.”
Eben Wilson, director of the pressure group TaxpayerScotland said: “As a state monopoly, Scottish Water always make soothing noises about the issue of water leaks.
“But the size of these figures cannot be ignored. They need to come forward and be absolutely clear about the engineering realities they face and the cost to those paying their bills of what has to be done.
A Scottish Water spokesman said it had a vast network of almost 30,000 miles of popes across Scotland and recognised the need to reduce leaks.
He added: “Since 2006 leakage had been reduced by nearly 50%.
“In the last year we reduced the amount of water leaking from our pipes by 54m litres a day.”
He said Scottish Water had exceeded targets for cutting leakages and taken steps to make the network more efficient.
But people don’t need to worry about running out of water altogether.
While Scotland has enjoyed a warm, dry summer, Scottish Water assure the public that water level in reservoirs and rivers were about what it would expect.
