Affinity Water has awarded a major contract to Lightsonic to roll out Distributed Fibre Optic Sensing (DFOS) leak detection, using Openreach’s existing fibre network. The system converts fibre cables into thousands of virtual sensors to detect the acoustic signatures of leaks, with machine learning filtering background noise to provide real-time alerts.
By leveraging existing infrastructure, the approach promises faster, more scalable, and cost-effective leak detection compared to conventional methods.
The initiative forms part of Affinity Water’s wider strategy to curb leakage an issue that accounts for around a quarter of the UK’s water supply and supports the sector’s goal to halve losses by 2050.
