by Martin Jefferies and Jess Banham

Kent's water companies are losing enough water through leakage to fill 300 Olympic-sized swimming pools EVERY DAY.

Figures seen by KentOnline reveal Southern Water, South East Water, Thames Water and Veolia are losing a total of 785m litres of water a day - that is 286bn litres a year.

It comes just two weeks before a hosepipe ban is brought in across Kent, after two unusually dry winters that have left the county in drought.

Every day, Thames Water loses 30,000 litres of water per mile of pipe, compared to 11,000 for Veolia, 10,500 for South East Water and 9,800 for Southern Water.

However, all four companies are meeting targets set by the water regulator Ofwat.

Trevor Clark, control centre manager at Southern Water, said: "We're doing everything we can. We're recording our lowest leakage level for four years and since April 2011, we've repaired a record number of leaks - around 26,000 in total.

"We're right in the middle of a £55m three-year programme to replace around 250km of pipes.

"We're also installing water meters which include leak alarms, so that if one of our customers has a leak on their supply pipe, we'll get an early warning."

Mr Clark said just 2% of the 83m litres of water it loses every day is pumped from Bewl Water, which is just 46% full.

Last month, Southern Water was granted a drought permit by the Environment Agency, allowing it to take more water from the River Medway to help refill the reservoir, near Lamberhurst.

The countywide housepipe ban comes into force on Thursday, April 5 - just before the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.

The temporary restrictions will also stop people washing cars and filling swimming pools.

Anyone who breaches the terms of the ban - the first since 2005 - could be prosecuted.