The Great Leaky Loo Scandal

Feeling flush?

Nobody wants to wastewater and certainly, no one wants to waste money, but that is exactly what is happening as a result of a growing problem with leaking toilets!

According to Waterwise a leaking toilet wastes between 215 and 400 litres of clean drinking water on average every day!

Between 5 and 8% of toilets are leaking. The problem was highlighted on BBC Costing the Earth “The Great Leaky Loo Scandal” and is particularly prevalent in dual flush toilets due to failures in their internal valve systems. The failures allow water to constantly dribble down the back of the toilet.  Around 400 million litres of water is currently estimated to leak from UK toilets every day, which is enough water to supply 2.8 million people – the populations of Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, and Bristol combined.

This figure will increase without action.

What can be done?

The water industry and Waterwise have highlighted the scale of the issue to the bathroom manufacturers to encourage them to design out the problem. They need to come up with design solutions that will help avoid it in new toilets when they are fitted.

This still leaves all the toilets that are already out there. Data from water meters, particularly smart meters can help by spotting unusual night-time consumption patterns. But not many people have a smart water meter yet.

So, if you want to make sure you aren’t wasting water, we recommend that you regularly check on your toilets at home and at work to see if they are leaking into the pan.

To help, order your free “Leaky loo strips and instructions” from Yorkshire Water now.