Watch out for United Utilities' new team of leak detectives

United Utilities staff were ‘watching the detectives’ this week when 64 leakage specialists came to the water company’s Warrington headquarters for a special induction event.

The group, recruited to help the company locate and fix leaks on its network, were kitted out with new mobile technology and vans.

Hannah Wardle, network delivery manager – leakage, explained: “Tackling leakage is a real priority for us. These guys worked for one of our contractors but we decided to bring them in-house to increase our leakage detection capability as well as develop their skills and train them in the latest leak detection technology.

“Expanding our team of leak detectives means we can drive our leakage down even further and meet our target of reducing leakage by 15 per cent by 2025,” she added.

The company has been using a variety of innovative leakage detection technologies including satellite technology and specially-trained sniffer dogs.

Hannah Wardle said: “With leakage detection it’s all about building up the evidence using a range of different technologies. Satellites can help us to get a bird’s eye view of a particular area and our sniffer dogs can then pinpoint the exact place to start digging.”