Abstract Reduction of leakages in water distribution systems (WDSs) is one of the major concerns for water industries. This paper presents a leakage reduction technique using pressure management by optimizing the water level in storage tanks, along with optimized control and localization of pressure-reducing valves (PRVs) in WDSs. A new mathematical tank and pump simulation algorithm is presented for controlling pressure in WDSs, by optimizing the water storage level in the tank depending upon the demand variations. The tank is used as a decision variable for the leakage reduction model. A modified reference pressure algorithm is introduced for improving PRV localization. A multiobjective genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) is used to find the optimized operational control setting of the PRV for leakage minimization. The proposed algorithm leads to a leakage reduction of 26.51% in Anytown WDS and 20.81% in a modified benchmark WDS. This technique leads to an appreciable reduction in leakage rate, with fewer PRVs required, taking into account constraints such as maintaining a lower hydraulic failure index (<0.01), emergency storage, etc. It can be concluded that the proposed novel leakage reduction technique provides a more cost effective and efficient solution for leakage control.