Canine friends lend a helping paw to water companies

You may have heard of Scooby-Doo solving crimes, Lassie performing heroic deeds, or K9 zapping Daleks. But now there is a new group of dogs saving the day at water companies up and down the UK. 

Dogs have up to 50 times more scent receptors than humans and can be trained to sniff out protected species such as newts, hedgehogs and nesting birds. This is useful to relocate wildlife in areas where water companies plan to work.

Bracken is a four-year-old Labrador employed by Northumbrian Water to sniff out hedgehogs, so that they can be moved to safety before works start on cutting hedgerows and clearing vegetation. Outside of this role, he's also a much loved pet.

Detecting leaks

The strong scenting abilities of dogs aren’t just used by water companies for finding wildlife. Kilo uses his expert nose to detect the faint scent of chlorine, which is used in very small, safe amounts to treat drinking water. This comes in handy for his role at Portsmouth Water, where Kilo locates leaks in water pipes. Just on his second day he found a leak on a major pipe near Chichester, good boy Kilo! 

Locating leaks is particularly tricky in rural or hard-to-access areas where traditional techniques can be slow or challenging. Scottish Water has found that dogs are excellent at finding leaks in wet, boggy terrain and can distinguish between the water on the ground and leaking treated water underneath. 

At the opposite end of the UK, Wessex Water is using dogs to help detect a different type of leak. Wastewater can get into the environment when a toilet or shower is incorrectly connected, or when a pipe that pumps sewage becomes damaged. Bluey and Bandit are the water company’s newest recruits, helping detect small concentrations of odour in challenging locations. Then the humans can investigate, excavate, and repair the bursts.

Reducing leaks

Leaking water pipes are at the lowest level ever - down 9% in the last 5 years - and water companies are determined to get that level even lower. This is no small task, as there are 350,00km of water pipes in the UK, enough to stretch around the earth almost 9 times!

Over the next 5 years water companies aim to reduce leaks by a further 17% from projected 2024-25 levels. To do this they will use an array of technologies including satellites, AI and microphones to pinpoint the exact location of underground pipes and leaks. 

But sometimes all this technology can’t beat the accuracy of an expert nose! So there will always be a special place in water companies’ arsenals for their four-legged friends.