South East Water daily leaks equivalent to 500 million cups of tea

South East Water (SEW) is wasting more than 100 million litres of water per day through leakages, figures have revealed. Data from the watchdog Ofwat shows the crisis-hit company lost 104 million litres of water – equivalent to around 500 million cups of tea - to leaks every single day last year. Marc Sims, from SEW, said the company was "working hard" to reduce leakage across its network. He said SEW had "brought in additional repair teams to assist". The Ofwat figures show that the amount of water leaked increased by 8% in 2024-25 compared with 2019-20, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Kent County councillor Antony Hook said the "clean, treated" water being lost could supply more than 700,000 people - more than a third of the entire population of Kent – daily. It comes after thousands of SEW customers in Kent experienced spells without running water or an inconsistent supply in May - at times during hot weather. The water company had put in place a hosepipe ban affecting 1.4 million customers in Sussex and Kent last year. Councillor Bill Barratt said the "gigantic scale" of leaks showed "how shocking our water infrastructure and resilience actually is". "I am d