Anglian Water is losing 201 million litres of water every day through leaking pipes -- enough to supply Colchester six times over.

Despite the company coming top in an Ofwat survey of leak-beating water firms, Anglian Water has pledged to continue investing large sums of money to cut the amount of water lost.

Last year the business, which supplies 1.2 billion litres every 24 hours, cut water leakage by 34 million litres of water a day.

Roy Pointer, Anglian Water Services' managing director, said: "We are thrilled that Ofwat has confirmed us as the UK's leading leakage control company. However, we are not complacent and we will be working hard to stay at the top of the pack."

With pipes covering 34,500km -- enough to stretch around the globe -- the firm is hoping a new electronic system will help them cut leaks still further.

Graham Frankland, spokesman for Anglian Water, said: "We are a dry area and an expanding area and it is important that we use as much of what is in the pipes as possible.

"We have put in place some big schemes to help us achieve our aims. We beat the Ofwat target this year and we are determined to beat it again next year."

He said the firm planned to invest more than £20 million in a bid to slash water leakage during the next year.

The firm's current leakage is 5.8 cubic metres per km of water pipe which compares with the industry average of 11.2 cubic metres.

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