Present Day
Greater London is currently supplied by four companies: Thames Water (76% of population), Affinity Water (14%), Essex and Suffolk Water (6.6%) and Sutton and East Surrey Water (3.7%).
Most of London's water still comes from the River Thames and River Lea, with the remainder being abstracted from underground sources.
Much of the water piping in London is still cast iron piping which dates back to the nineteenth century and is slowly deteriorating. This has led to widespread criticism of Thames Water for the amount of water lost to leaks in its distribution network. As of 2007, Thames Water is still in the process of a rolling programme of upgrading the water supply network to use modern plastic piping.
The single largest infrastructure project in recent years has been the creation of the Thames Water Ring Main, a "backbone network" for London's water supply. This connects all the waterworks, and pumping stations.
Read more about this topic: London Water Supply Infrastructure
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