It’s a sight becoming increasingly common for Houstonians: gushing water spewed from broken city pipes left to leak onto public sidewalks and roads for days, sometimes even weeks.
According to officials with Houston Public Works during a service delivery committee meeting last Wednesday, the problem has just gotten progressively worse over the last four years.
The department said it received 9,143 reports of leaks in 2020, 11,831 in 2021, 12,128 in 2022, and 13,911 in 2023.
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The leaks in 2023 translated to 31.8 billion gallons of water lost in Houston just from pipe leaks. That’s enough to supply water to the entire City of Fort Worth, which has a population of about 900,000 people.
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Director of Water Greg Eyerly told city council members that aging infrastructure, coupled with rapid population growth and more frequent severe weather, are the primary reasons for the increasing numbers.