Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://read.utilityweek.co.uk/i/971076
16 | MAY 2018 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk • WATER THEFT: STATISTICS • Thames Water estimates that it loses between 2 million and 3 million litres to water theft every year • Thames Water identified 734 unauthorised connections last year – rising from 33 in 2011, before the water theft team was set up • Over the course of 2016/17, Severn Trent managed a 13.24 per cent decrease in the type of discolouration complaints that relate to illegal hydrant use • In 2017, Severn Trent received a total of 606 reports of illegal hydrant use • As of February 2018, Severn Trent had prosecuted 46 cases of water theft and formally cautioned 29 and formally warned 168 companies The Works: water theft escapes from the network through other means, such as leakage. Statistics on non- revenue water – i.e. the gap between the total amount of water used and the total which is paid for – are likely to include a chunk that is down to the, but until this can be identified and proven, shortfalls are usually assumed to be leakage, counting against the water company on this key measure of regulatory performance. What's more, depending on how water is taken from the network, unauthorised extraction can create knock-on effects that generate complaints, as nearby customers experience discoloured water or low pressure, for example. "Water the is one of those problems that, if you don't look for it, you don't really see it," says former Surrey Police detective Stuart Orchard, who leads the Thames Water investigation team. "Until recently, everyone had the problem and nobody really was getting to grips with how to deal with it. "All the water that people are taking out without being metered or paying for will be attributed to leakage, so we want to capture those figures and say: 'It's not going against leakage, it's going into that block of 75 flats there who've got an illegal connection that was made by some random builder'." T hames Water's water the unit began operating in 2014, in response to a growing number of cases that had come to the company's attention. Ex-policeman Stuart Orchard, who heads the eight-strong unit, was chosen for the role because of his experience with prosecutions and the courts. Not every member of the illegal connections team has a law enforcement background but the set-up shows the influence of Orchard's previous work. Each investigator will have a caseload of up to 50 investigations, sparked by reports of suspect activity from engineers, members of the public, contractors, leakage inspectors or the billing team, who will flag up any instances in which people have set up an account in locations where there is no record of Thames having made a connection. "We will do some desktop investigation to establish whether it is an illegal connection," Orchard says. "We'll check in our records to see if anyone's applied for a connection there. We'll look on Google Maps to see what was there before or in years gone past. Was it once a factory and now it's a block of flats? We'll send an engineer out to have a look at the scarring on the road, the quality of the work done, so we can build up a picture even before we start engaging with anyone as to whether it's an illegal connection. "We do employ some ex-police within the team because of their investigative abilities and ability to interview people, including speaking with developers who aren't always particularly happy to speak with us because they've done something wrong." The coverage the Thames Water detective team received in January prompted a question on the subject in the House of Lords, which led Lord Gardiner of Kimble to reveal that the Environment Agency believes "around 3 per cent of water put into public supply is used and not paid for", although that figure also included legal usage such as firefighting and training. "The ratio of the 3 per cent taken legally to illegally is unknown," Lord Gardiner added. Orchard says the size of the problem is hard to quantify. "We're highlighting the problem, so we're getting more and more referrals, but how big the problem actually is no one really knows," he says. In terms of penalties, he says Thames Water will seek to educate before taking action but that the company is now a lot more robust in seeking prosecutions. "We will investigate every case that comes across our desk, and we will rectify it," he says. "It's all about trying to send a strong message: If you steal our water, we will take action." • WATER COMPANY RESPONSE Thames Water's investigations team. L-R: Stephen Johnston, Stuart Maggs, Stuart Orchard, Kailesh Gadhavi, Claire Rumens, Laura Scherer.