They say dogs are a man's best friend and for members of the Essex and Suffolk water team, Denzel the springer spaniel is exactly that.

The three-year-old is proving to be a big hit with the team having been specially trained to sniff out water leaks.

The operators provide services to several areas in the east of England including Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

Denzel has been through a rigorous training programme with his handlers Luke Jones and Ross Stephenson of CAPE SPC and can recognise the tiniest traces of chlorine used to disinfect water supplies.

Denzel searches land where the water pipes are laid and when he thinks he has picked up the scent of a leak he alerts his handlers.

Teams can then carry out further investigations to find and fix the leaks.

Essex and Suffolk Water network performance specialist, Joe Butterfield said the whole team were excited to be working with Denzel.

'We are always looking for new and innovative ways to save water and detect leaks and recruiting Denzel to the team is a fantastic example of this.' he said.

The operator also uses satellite technology to detect water spillages and has pledged to reduce leaks across its network by 17.5pc over the next few years.