Australia’s first water leak detection dog has enjoyed a birthday lunch at Parliament House hosted by the Minister for Water, Dave Kelly.
Four-year-old Kep is already a water-saving sensation.
In in the past year her keen sense of smell discovered 36 hidden leaks across regional Western Australia, helping the Water Corporation save around 197 million litres of the precious liquid.
Since joining the Water Corporation in 2018, Kep and her handler, Andrew Blair, have surveyed 903 kilometres of water mains, discovering 92 hidden leaks and saving an estimated 880 million litres of water — the equivalent to around 352 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Kep, an English springer spaniel whose name is the Noongar word for water, was trained from birth to sniff out underground leaks which can be buried more than a metre deep.
She works in rural and remote areas where there are long stretches of buried pipelines and where regular acoustic leak detection methods are less effective or cost prohibitive.
Kep is part of the Water Corporation’s non-visible leak detection program which last year inspected more than 3,700 kilometres of water mains in the State, saving a potential 2.7 billion litres of water.
Mr Kelly said leaks were a reality faced by water utilities around the world.
“For the Water Corporation, the challenge is all the more important given there are nearly 35,000 kilometres of water mains in Western Australia,” Mr Kelly said.
“It’s incredible that Kep can sniff out a water leak buried deep underground and help save our precious water supplies. I look forward to many more years of her being Water Corporation’s most loved employee.”
