Purpose –Water scarcity is one of the main problems facing humankind, due to the population increase and the obsolescence of water distribution pipelines. Water services providers offer the defense that they are operating as efficiently as they can, given their specific circumstances, and that further increases in efficiency to reduce levels of leakage would require increased tariffs that are always politically unpopular. As a result, one of the main challenges for water supply managers is the definition of a sustainable plan to reduce water losses caused by leakage. The objective of this research is to support the decision makers in selecting a set of engineering solutions (e.g., leak detection and repairs and rehabilitation projects) to reduce leakage, namely a leakage plan or program, that takes into account the conflicting objectives of the actors involved, as well as the uncertainties characterizing these contexts. Design/methodology/approach – To accomplish with the research objective, an original approach is developed to determine a “sustainable plan of leakage reduction”. Starting from the concept of sustainability and its dimensions, it is able to combine different types of engineering solutions to reduce leakage (rehabilitation plan, pressure control, etc.), the conflicting objectives of the actors involved (water company and community), as well as the uncertainty-related factors that characterize these contexts (meteorological events, demand variability, etc.). Originality/value – This paper focuses on water supply system leakage, a high-profile topic worldwide due to the increasing international trend towards sustainability, economic efficiency and environmental protection. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it fills the existing gap in the literature on leakage management through the development of an innovative approach. It overcomes the limitation of the existing studies, by i) combining different types of engineering solutions to reduce leakage and not analysing just one type of intervention (e.g., rehabilitation versus pressure control activity), ii) considering the conflicting objectives of the actors involved (water company and community) and iii) including the uncertainty-related factors that characterize these contexts. Second, this paper develops an approach that will support the decision makers (practitioners) in selecting a “sustainable plan of leakage reduction”. Practical implications – The outcomes of the analysis is intended to provide some managerial implications that can be useful for water company managers that face with water resource management planning.