ENOUGH water to fill 16 Olympic-sized swimming pools is leaking from the Capital's ageing underground pipes every day.
The Evening News can reveal that more than 40 million litres are lost on a daily basis – nearly a quarter of the entire amount treated across the three Scottish Water treatment plants which serve Edinburgh and parts of West Lothian.
Scottish Water was unable to say how much the leaks cost taxpayers, although calculations based on the cost of water point to a figure of £60,000 a day.
Opposition politicians and consumer groups today branded the leakage rates as "unacceptable".
But Scottish Water insisted it was investing heavily to reduce the leakage levels from the city's crumbling Victorian-era network of water pipes.
A spokesman said: "Leakage is a complex, historic problem with no easy or quick solution. Replacing old pipes and upgrading the network will require time and investment. Across Edinburgh, during this funding phase, we are investing around £100 million to provide fresher drinking water to around 450,000 people.
"Since the start of 2008, several thousand Edinburgh families have benefited from projects in Corstorphine, Canonmills, Gorgie and Granton. We are taking the opportunity provided by the trams development to upgrade even more of this ageing network. Although targets were not met in the first year, the work we have undertaken lays a strong foundation to achieve leakage targets in the years to come."
Around 45 visible water leaks on the city's streets are reported every month, though many more occur below ground. A further 15.7 million litres of water is lost every day through customers' private pipe work and fittings.
Scottish Water is in the process of installing measurement equipment across Edinburgh which will help it monitor which parts of the network are leaking most and improve its rate of leak fixing.
The utility firm says it has earmarked £100m for improvement projects across the Capital, including a series of mains replacement and a new water treatment plant in Midlothian.
Robin Harper, Lothians Green MSP, said: "It is an unacceptable loss but you can see Scottish Water is spending huge amounts to improve the situation.
"We have to accept that we will never get this down to zero because you will never be able to factor out things like pipes breaking under the weight of traffic.
"But I think the public need to recognise that they can do their bit to reduce water wastage as well, whether it is putting a brick in their toilet cistern or not letting taps run when they brush their teeth."
Trisha McAuley, of the Scottish Consumer Council, added: "These leakage levels are unacceptable. It is inefficient, environmentally unfriendly and we need greater transparency on where customers' money is going. we need to remember it is the customers who are paying for these leaks."
Scotland-wide targets to plug the leaks were set for the first time in 2006, when the Water Industry Commission for Scotland ordered Scottish Water to cut its leakage from 1.17 billion litres to 960 million litres. The firm only reduced it to 1.04 billion litres for 2006-07.
However, the Scottish Water spokesman added: "That first target for 2006/2007 was the second highest reduction ever demanded in one year in the UK water industry.
Companies in England and Wales began tackling leakage more than 20 years ago and have reduced it by 30 per cent in the last 11 years. In Scotland we have achieved a nine per cent reduction over the last 12 months."
GOING WITH THE FLOW• ONE billion litres of treated water a day are lost through leakages across Scotland.
• In Germany and the Netherlands, leakage rates are just 5 per cent of the amount of water produced.
• Of the 1013 miles of mains within Edinburgh, Scottish Water has replaced more than 152 miles since 2002.
• The firm will build a new seven-mile trunk main to connect its planned £80 million treatment works on the edge of the Pentland Hills Regional Park to Edinburgh.
• The average person in Scotland uses 140 litres of water every day – including showering, washing clothes, flushing toilets and drinking water.
• The average household water and waste water bill in Scotland is £316.27 per year. This works out at 0.0015p per litre.
• A year's supply of the recommended amount of water for a person to drink if they chose branded bottled mineral water would be £273.75. In comparison, the same volume of Scottish Water costs just £1.09.
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www.scottishwater.co.uk