A years-long search for a water leak in underground pipes at a popular seaside town was discovered with the help of artificial intelligence, stopping TasWater from losing money down the drain.
Scrutiny over TasWater has revealed it lost up to 30 per cent of its water supply at a cost of about $20 million, with Labor highlighting average higher than average water losses.
The Government Business Enterprise revealed it has been on a 15-month program to reduce its non-revenue water losses down to 13 per cent in the next few years.
Artificial intelligence is helping the cause.
A $4 million investment has installed technological censors on water mains across Tasmania, which have already helped to fix a long-lost underground water leak.
"The censors collect data and sophisticated software then analyses that data every 60 minutes," a spokeperson said.
"It identifies abnormal patterns of behaviour in the water network...and can zero in on a particular location and fix it," he said.
"In Penguin...there was a leak that was losing between 15 and 30 litres a second and crews couldn't find it for the best part of a few years."
Meanwhile, the GBE revealed its interest on debt would increase to $45 million by 2028, due to higher interest rates and higher debt.
A TasWater spokesperson said that its operating cashflows were strong.
"Even with the increasing debt, we are projecting to still be able to achieve strong underlying profits in that time."
