Calgary loses billions of litres of water a year due to leaks: report

Calgary loses billions of litres of drinking water a year due to leaks, according to a new report.

The report from the City of Calgary indicates that 22 per cent of its water was lost in 2022 — and 88 per cent of it was because of water leaks.

The unaccounted for water that year alone equates to approximately 31.6 billion litres. In Edmonton, only 5 per cent of the city’s water was lost from leaks in 2022, according to the same report.

The CEO of BILD Calgary Region says he’s been writing the city about the problem for some time and highlighted the number in a recent letter.

“It is import to ensure water infrastructure is rightsized,” say Brian Hahn. “As we begin to look deeper into the matter of rightsizing, the level of unaccounted for water became a concern for us.”

Rightsizing is the process of converting something to the optimum size.

Hahn says he is pleased to see the city undergo a third-party review, the draft guidelines of which will be discussed at a council meeting on Tuesday.

“To the city’s credit, they were very forthcoming in terms of sharing with us that data,” he says. “We want to make sure that losses of that magnitude are not being designed into the size of new infrastructure.”

“They have a water loss reduction plan that they are pursuing, and they’ve made some progress on that. We encourage them to continue refining that plan.”

The city is continuing to move cautiously in its work to restore full water service after a feeder main break more than a month ago.

Officials want to continue to test the capabilities of the Bearspaw South feeder main, and say that has led to the decision to turn on another pump at the Bearspaw Water Treatment Plant around midday Monday.

Over the next 72 hours, the pipe will be monitored by technology to see how it responds to the added pressure. The mayor says a decision to lift some outdoor water restrictions will be made on Thursday.