South East Water’s Managing Director Kevin Hutchings said the leakage team will use acoustic listening technology to listen to 750 km of water mains and identify any water leaks.
South East Water Leak Detection Manager Malcolm Hill said “The location of the leak is pinpointed by the use of ‘pods’–small listening devices that attach to the fire hydrants and pipe valves to record sound in short bursts.
“The information is then transferred to a laptop, which interprets data into a graph and identifies the location of the leak. When noise generated by the leak travels to the pods there is a spike on our graph and that’s when we know we’ve found the location of the water leak.
“Importantly, our leak detection program is helping to prevent bursts. In 2009–10, the 23 areas tested reported about 580 bursts; well down from the previous year’s figure of around 1,400,” Mr Hill said.
