Dŵr Cymru leaks waste ’94 Olympic sized swimming pools’ of water a day

Abby Neve

Dŵr Cymru has been criticised after new figures revealed the company lost 234 million litres of water per day through leaks last year – the equivalent of 94 Olympic-sized swimming pools every day.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats’ analysis was carried out using data from the House of Commons Library and Ofwat records, and found that Dŵr Cymru lost 85,000 million litres of water due to leaks in 2024/2025. The party says that this amounts to 160 litres of water per customer per day.

The report comes as Natural Resources Wales has declared a drought across Wales, with hosepipe bans already in place in some areas.

‘Gross mishandling’

Welsh Liberal Democrat Westminster spokesperson David Chadwick MP said the figures show the need for urgent actions.

“Dŵr Cymru have got away with their gross mishandling of our water infrastructure for far too long; now these figures prove it. Dŵr Cymru needs to urgently get its house in order,” he said.

“Whilst people across Wales have had to face hosepipe bans or the threat of one, Dŵr Cymru are taking them for a ride. Dŵr Cymru must stop rewarding their unaccountable bosses with exorbitant bonuses and start investing in fixing their infrastructure so we can avoid this happening time after time.”

“The Government must immediately replace Ofwat with a powerful new regulator in Wales, in order to hold Dŵr Cymru to account for its persistent failures. It has been clear for years the current system is not working for our environment or customers.”

‘Sorry’

A Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water spokesperson said that they are ‘sorry’:

“We are sorry to those customers who have been affected and understand the frustration and inconvenience this has caused.”

“For prolonged periods this summer, demand has been around 20% above normal, with customers using around one billion litres of water a day across our operating area. Crucially, demand has also remained unusually high overnight, when our network would normally have the opportunity to recover and service reservoirs replenish.

“Our teams have been working around the clock to maintain supplies – maximising production from our treatment works, moving water around the network wherever possible and stepping up the identification and repair of leaks.

“The prolonged dry weather is also having a direct impact on our network. As the ground dries, contracts and moves, it places additional stress on pipes and is contributing to an increase in bursts. We are recruiting and deploying additional repair teams to increase our capacity and tackle leakage as quickly as possible.

“We recognise the strength of feeling about leakage and agree that more needs to be done. We manage around 27,000km of water mains and are committed to reducing leakage by 24% by 2030 as part of our record investment programme of more than £4 billion.

“We are investing in our network, increasing our repair capacity and doing everything we can operationally to maintain supplies during these exceptional conditions. We thank customers for working with us and continue to ask them to use water wisely. Even small reductions in demand, when multiplied across the millions of people we serve, can make a significant difference in helping us keep water flowing to everyone.”

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