National centre set to tackle water leaks

The centre will provide a large, secure environment that replicates a real underground water network, supporting the testing of novel solutions to reduce leakage.

The NLRTC will consist of an offline District Metered Area (DMA) and a smaller test rig (sandpit), both of which will be constructed on HR Wallingford’s business park and neighbouring fields in Oxfordshire.

The DMA will comprise a fully scaled, 5km-long, buried water pipeline, with multiple sub-metered areas, leakage simulation bunkers, and a control room enabling automated control capabilities. The sandpit will allow water companies and innovators to try out new technology before testing it in the offline DMA area.

Once built, the centre will be operated by a partnership between HR Wallingford and Northumbrian Water with support from the WRc (Water Research centre), and financed for the first three years by the Ofwat Innovation Fund.

In a statement, Jeannette Henderson, principal, Ofwat Innovation Fund said: “Around 20 per cent of water put into the distribution network is currently lost to leaks in England and Wales. Whilst this is the lowest level on record and water companies have targets to cut leaks further by 2030, we need to do even more. Just doing more 'business-as-usual' will not be enough to drive down leakage levels significantly, we need new technologies and innovative approaches to tackling the problem.”

Water companies were consulted about the facility’s location, design and specification, and stakeholders reviewed the outline design for the DMA, which was drawn up by WRc and HR Wallingford.

Stantec carried out the detailed design work for the DMA, and has provided a range of interdisciplinary planning and engineering services to support the NLRTC’s planning application.

The partners are aiming to submit a full planning application for the DMA shortly and anticipate that construction will start later this year. Construction is expected to take around nine months.

Once constructed, the facility will be used by innovators, water companies, design stakeholders, technology suppliers, researchers, and academics to experiment, accelerate and certify novel leakage solutions to support the leakage challenge faced in the UK water sector.