Canine Brigade Detects Water Pipe Leaks in La Réunion

For the first time on the island of La Réunion, Civis and its public‑service delegate Runéo, a Veolia subsidiary, deployed a specialised team of detection dogs to locate leaks in the potable‑water network at Étang‑Salé. The dogs, trained to sniff minute chlorine emissions that rise to the surface when a pipe leaks, were able to pinpoint numerous hidden leaks that acoustic methods struggled to find.

During the trial from 27 July to 3 August, the brigade covered more than 30 km of pipeline, identifying around fifty chlorine‑trace points, some representing active leaks and others indicating potential future failures. The initiative aims to curb the island’s high water‑loss rate—about 40 % of produced potable water—by providing a complementary tool to traditional acoustic surveys, especially in sandy or noisy environments. François Bourdeau, director of K9 Cyno Consultants, explained that the dogs “detect chlorine odors that no existing device can sense,” and the method was validated in 2021 after a decade of development.