Highly trained leakage detection dogs are helping Portsmouth Water to find hidden leaks - this includes its newest four-legged recruit, Kilo, who on just his second day on the job successfully identified a leak on a major 18-inch trunk main near Chichester.

With colder months approaching, the likelihood of leaks increases significantly as pipes contract and expand due to the rapid changes in temperature, resulting in bursts. Detection dogs are now playing an important role in Portsmouth Water’s leak location work.

Trained to detect the faint scent of chlorine, used in very small, safe amounts to treat drinking water, dogs like Kilo can locate leaks with remarkable accuracy. This is particularly useful in rural or hard-to-access areas where traditional techniques can be slow or challenging.

As well as detection dogs, Portsmouth Water is investing in a range of new techniques to identify and fix leaks, including satellite technology. Satellite imagery can highlight areas below ground which are saturated with treated, drinking water, indicating that a pipe is leaking. This allows teams to locate and fix leaks quickly and efficiently, even before they become visible at the surface. This technology has enabled Portsmouth Water to fix approximately 400 leaks over the last two years. The company now plans to combine this technology with the detection dog work on the ground, helping to pinpoint these leaks as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Portsmouth Water has also invested in new acoustic loggers which identify the sounds created by leaks across the network. The company already uses loggers to monitor 45% of its network and since 2022, has repaired over 1,100 leaks detected by this technology. The new loggers learn the usual sounds of the network and are more sensitive in recognising any changes. This should allow Portsmouth Water to detect quieter leaks, which in some instances are larger than ones omitting more noise.

Bob Taylor, CEO of Portsmouth Water, said:

“Our customers rightly expect us to reduce leakage, and we are absolutely committed to meeting that expectation. Over the next five years, we’re delivering our largest ever investment programme that will see us reduce leakage by 15% by 2030, saving an additional 3 million litres of water every day.

“Bringing in specially trained detection dogs like Kilo, alongside innovative technologies such as satellites and new acoustic loggers, helps us to find leaks faster and fix them sooner. This is especially important as we head into the colder, winter months, when low temperatures and frozen pipes result in more bursts.”

The leakage detection dogs are supplied by CAPE SPC, specialists in water leak detection and canine-assisted inspection.