Leaking Money

A few weeks ago, I mentioned how one local utility was trying to find (and stop) leaky pipes. I concluded with "When water is scarce, it pays to patch the leaks in the pipes."

This story describes one Israeli company that wants to make a lot of money on finding and plugging leaks:

Miya’s primary aim will be to fix leaks in underground pipes, which the company estimates to be responsible for the loss of a third of the world’s drinking water. Recouping that water using pressure technologies, focused leakage detection and selective pipe repair, they claim could provide an additional 130 million people with fresh drinking water.

[snip]

Despite Miya’s humanitarian goals, Arison firmly emphasized the company’s for-profit intentions. “Our aim in reducing water loss in general, and in establishing Miya in particular, is to generate high financial yields,” she said. “By efficiently exploiting the supply of drinkable water, we are implementing our concept of sustainability.”

Leak detection is a tricky business suitable for a specialized business, so these guys will probably succeed -- if public companies decide to bypass their own employees in favor of the "experts".

Bottom Line: Leaky pipes are the great unknown of urban water supplies, and they have been ignored (push more water through and/or treat more heavily*) for a long time. Not any more.

* Stuff also leaks IN