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A trial which uses drones to monitor water quality is expanding.

Northumbrian Water will use the drones to test coastal waters and estuaries across north-east England, following test flights in Bishop Auckland earlier this year.

The equipment would make it cheaper and easier to gather data in hard-to-reach areas, as the water company currently relied on manual collection, it said.

The company said it would continue with manual checks to understand the reliability of the technology.

The data collected by drone would be reviewed and any issues with water quality would be investigated as standard procedure, Northumbrian Water added.

The Project Kingfisher trial was a "world first" for the water industry, the firm said, and was named after the way the aircraft hover and dip in and out of water.

'Real-time data'

The trial would show how drone operations could help water companies to proactively respond to problems and improve worker safety, the firm said.

Manually collecting water samples could be "challenging or simply not possible" in some locations, and the travel could sometimes take several hours, making the process time-consuming and inefficient, Northumbrian Water said.

Technical policy manager John Edwards said: "We know that water quality is an incredibly important topic at the moment – so it's great that we are able to use these innovative trials."

The aircraft are currently capable of travelling up to 12 miles (20km) on a single charge, with flights conducted by Skyports Drone Services.

They are equipped with sensors which provide real-time data to Northumbrian Water.

Project Kingfisher Lead at Skyports Drone Services Cheska Rojas said the trial was an "important step towards scaling these services and eventually rolling them out in other parts of the UK".

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