TORONTO — Municipal water systems in Ontario experience leakage rates of up to 50 percent, accounting for the loss of 327 million cubic meters (86.4 billion gallons) of drinking water annually at a cost of C$700 million (US$634 million) to taxpayers, the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO) reported June 10.

The RCCAO, an alliance of groups from the residential and civil construction industry, on June 10 released its study, Incorporating Sustainability in Infrastructure ROI: The energy costs of deferred maintenance in municipal water systems.

The RCCAO said leaky pipes account for at least 25 percent of the province’s drinking water — enough to fill about 131,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

According to the full report, infrastructure traditionally has been designed at the project level with “only passing consideration to the overall performance of the network.” Today’s projects call for “more rigorous consideration for the impacts of individual projects on local communities.”

To accommodate this, the RCCAO said “There is clearly a need for a new paradigm in the design and management of infrastructure systems. We have to incorporate the sustainability impacts of projects into the analysis and decision-making processes. New costs and benefits have to be incorporated into the overall estimation of project feasibility and return on investment (ROI).”

The alliance summarized some of the costs associated with leaky pipes, including:

● Basement flooding, erosion of foundations, service disruptions, and in extreme cases, sinkholes. Businesses and homeowners are affected.

● Treated water contains chlorine, and this may flow into sensitive water bodies.

● Leaking sewer lines result in effluent being discharged into the environment.

● There can be increased risks to human health.

To read the full RCCAO release, click here.

To access the full RCCAO report, click here.

For related information, click here.