Water storage lake upgrade complete

Thursday, 15 August 2013

The taps were turned on at Te Marua water storage lake again yesterday — but it will take two months to fill it up.

The now 1660-million-litre lake, north of Upper Hutt, was emptied late last year so it could be made bigger and earthquake-strengthened at a cost of $12.4 million, following similar upgrade work on Te Marua’s other storage lake. 

Greater Wellington spokesman Noel Roberts said the lake provides a back-up water source for Upper Hutt, Lower Hutt, Porirua and Wellington.

Its closure exacerbated a region-wide water shortage in April, which saw the city’s supply drop to 20 days’ worth during a long period of dry weather.

‘‘The capacity increase of the two lakes combined will give us an extra 430 million litres of stored water — this amount could be enough to maintain water supply for up to two weeks longer in conditions similar to last summer’s drought,’’ said Mr Roberts.

When full, the combined storage of the two lakes will be 3730 million litres, which is about four times the volume of Wellington's Westpac Stadium.

Lake filling began with about 400 litres per second, about three baths’ full, but would increase to as much as 1000 litres per second once the water levels are high enough to stop incoming water disturbing the lake’s bed.