Toronto residents and businesses are fortunate enough to have access to fresh and safe drinking water. However, this comes at a cost. While residents gain access to safe drinking water, the city is losing millions of gallons of water every day through leaking, broken and aging pipes, according to a new study by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario (RCCAO).
The study, titled Water Infrastructure in the 21st, addresses the problem and indicates that the province’s systems are in dire need of repair.
The study by Tamer El-Diraby – a professor of civil and mineral engineering at the University of Toronto – shows that many communities in Ontario report an estimated leak rate of at least 10%.
However, the study also notes that reports from consultants who have conducted actual assessments show that rates could go as high as nearly 40% in Ontario. For example, an analysis for the city of Smiths Falls estimated that rates ranged from a staggering 41% to 67% between 2003 and 2019.
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Here in Toronto, the city has a consistently 10-15% leak rate, according to the study, meaning it wastes 103 million liters a day. The damage volume corresponds to the coverage of the daily requirement of a system that supplies a population of around 250,000 people or fills more than 15,000 Olympic-size swimming pools annually.
“The results of this study are alarming because they confirm that our water infrastructure is aging and in urgent need of repair,” says Nadia Todorova, Executive Director of RCCAO.
“Governments must provide sustainable resources to repair and replace these critical infrastructure assets. It is incredibly inefficient and almost single-handedly misses our water-saving targets if treated drinking water never gets into the taps due to leaking pipes. “
According to the survey, addressing water leaks has “innumerable” benefits and cost savings potential for local communities and, in turn, for the residents of Ontario, who are effectively paying for the cost of the leak.
For example, the study found that fixing leaks in a single section of the York area’s water system saved 139,000 cubic meters of water per year. This equates to 75 high-rise tanks and $ 426,000 in annual costs and 102 megawatt hours of energy per year – or enough to supply 11 households for a year and 4.1 tons of CO2 per year.
To address the problem, the study suggests that:
- Ontario should stay on course and continue to fund asset management (AM) projects;
- Stable resources should be provided to support an advanced asset-energy-carbon analysis that defines return on investment beyond the financial aspects of AM projects;
- Money is made available to communities to adopt best practices, drive innovation, and develop accountable plans to optimize investments and performance.
The study found that while Ontario has made significant advances in AM awareness and mastering best practice, more work needs to be done.
For example, a 2018 survey of 308 water utilities in North America found that the typical age of a failed water pipe is 50 years. This age of failure is “worrying” as approximately 28% of all aqueducts are 50 years or older.
In Toronto, the study found that 16% of the more than 6,000 kilometers of aqueducts are between 80 and 100 years old and 11% are more than 100 years old. In addition, the city of Toronto experiences an average of 1,400 water pipe breaks annually. It replaces around 35 to 50 kilometers of water pipes every year, so it assumes that the service life of a water pipe is 110-166 years.
“It is imperative that Ontario stay on course to maintain the value of its water infrastructure assets and introduce new asset management practices to make the infrastructure more resilient,” said Prof. El-Diraby.
“We have to face future challenges. If we lose our vigilance, the impact will be much greater than the simple problem of crumbling assets and poor service. “
You can read the full report here.
Written by
Ainsley Smith
When Ainsley isn’t writing about real estate, local developments, and beautiful homes she’d love to live in, she can usually be found exploring Toronto, cooking, working out at home, or hanging out with her cat, Jerry Seinfeld.
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