Yorkshire Water has cut leakage by two-fifths in the five years since it was castigated during the big drought for wasting water.

In the summer of 1995, it was vilified as huge levels of wastage were revealed in the midst of the long-running drought.

Customers were sent letters urging them to save water while 90 million gallons of water were being lost every day through underground pipe leaks.

But business improvement manager Jeff Davitt said the company had turned the situation round.

"Our spending on leakage detection has more than doubled since 1995. We now have 100 leakage inspectors going out looking for leaks - we were below 40 in 1994,'' he said.

"Leakage went way up the agenda in 1995 and it's much more of a priority. A lot of water disappears into the ground but the estimation and validation process has come on leaps and bounds and we are now recognised as the leader in measuring it.

"We have gone from a position of being ridiculed in 1995 to being involved in government studies and so forth."

YW spends more than £12 million a year on leakage. This breaks down into £7 million on finding and fixing the leaks, £4 million on reactive repairs to the network, more than £1 million on repairing customer pipes free of charge, and around £500,000 on reducing excessive pressures in the system.

Leakage in the Bradford area has been driven down by over two-fifths since 1995 from 536 million litres per day of supply to 308 million, less than 25 per cent in 2000.

In Bradford 22 inspectors work permanently on leakage detection, which has become much more proactive. Regionally there are more than 100, including contractors.

This is done by using electronic listening devices called corralators which help to determine the approximate area where the leak is. Listening sticks, like the one being used by Steve York, pictured, are then used to pinpoint the leak.

Water watchdog Ofwat said YW's performance was in the middle of the pack when it comes to leakage detection.

It said YW loses 317 million litres every day. This translates into 152.2 litres lost every day per property compared to an industry average of 148.5, and the company hits the industry average when its performance is measured in terms of water lost per km each day.

For a company of YW's size it loses 10.2 cubic metres per km compared to an average of 10.3.