Thames Water turns to acoustic sensors, satellites and AI to find leaks

With drought pressure building in the south-east of England, Thames Water says it now has more than 75,000 acoustic sensors listening for leaks on its network, up from 21,000 in 2025. It is using satellite imagery and AI alongside them.

The utility reports fixing more than 1,000 leaks a week, and says its leakage is down by more than 15 per cent since 2019/20. A satellite trial alone found more than 800 leaks, together losing about 8.7 million litres a day.

Finding a leak is the first half of the job; knowing how much water a network is losing is the other. See leak detection and non-revenue water in our glossary.