"Come on, we're looking for the leak!
".
At the end of the leash of Nathalie Delon, dog handler, Kyrie, a one and a half year old Mâlinoise.
The dog is part of the "canine brigade" set up by Veolia since 2019 to identify water leaks in the pipes for which the company is responsible.
Thanks to the reference smell, which in this case is the smell of chlorine, used to disinfect drinking water, dogs are able to locate pipe exhausts.
Nearly one billion m3 of drinking water are lost each year due to incidents and faults in the distribution pipes.
Read also“A time bomb”: how a billion m3 of drinking water is lost each year in France
"For the dog, it's a game"
“The dog in his head he plays.
He assimilated that his toy had the smell of chlorine so when he marks us to report a leak, we reward him, ”explains the dog handler.
Thanks to this canine device, 450 leaks were detected in France.
"We first took all the veterinary guarantees to be sure that the chlorine presented no risk to the dog's nose", explains François Bourdeau, canine technician.
After two years of experimentation, five dogs now make up the only “canine anti-water leak brigade” in France.
It's a success, we plan to create other brigades,” says Eryck Couffy, network manager for the central west region at Veolia.
Watch our report at the top of the article.