This is no exaggeration. It is the figure published this week by the Swiss Gas and Water Industry Association (SSIGE), which estimates that 12 per cent of the water flowing through Switzerland’s networks is lost to leaks before it reaches households. The network comprises some 90,000 km of pipes, many of which were installed in the 1950s and 1960s.
In some regions, the loss exceeds 30 per cent. And the cost of renewing all that infrastructure is estimated at around 110,000 million francs. This figure explains why nobody has done it yet.
To put this into context: the European average is around 25 per cent, so Switzerland isn’t the worst case. But 900 million litres is still 900 million litres a day. In a country that markets itself as a model of sustainable management and exports bottled water, there is a certain irony to this figure that does not go unnoticed.