Updated 09.10

Irish Water says it has saved 3 billion litres of water over the past six months by fixing leaks in household pipes.

The utility says it discovered over 50,000 leaks across the country through its First Fix Free Scheme - the leaky pipes were losing 18 million litres of water a day.

Irish Water has written to 35,000 households making them aware of potential leaks.

Under the First Fix Free Scheme, Irish Water has already repaired almost 1,300 leaks saving over 11 million litres of water every day.

A further 2,200 customers that Irish Water has alerted have undertaken their own repairs saving a further 7 million of litres every day.

Ervia, the company that runs Irish Water, says it expects to have to write to another 20,000 householders.

They said many of the householders who were written to in the first tranche were unaware of leaks on their properties.

If you receive a letter about a leak, Ervia says there are checks you can carry out on your own inside the house before having to call in the professionals. But, if necessary, they will send engineers - for free - to investigate if there is a leak on the customer’s external supply pipe between the meter and the house.

They may then offer a free repair, depending on the nature of the leak.

Conservation grants unclaimed

Seperately, you have only three days left to apply for your conservation grant ahead of Thursday's deadline.

The €100 grant is only available to people who registered with Irish Water on or before June 30th last.

Irish Water confirms 600,000 have applied, but since 1.3 million are eligible that means 700,000 have not bothered.

Irish Times journalist Conor Pope told Newstalk.com's Breakfast show that if you cannot put your hands on your WPRN number or your Irish Water number it is hard to make an application:

Pope is expecting hundreds of thousands to apply for the grant in coming days and is predicting an extension to that deadline, though there have been no indications of that so far.