Under pressure: Wellington water woes 'widespread and fundamental'

Wednesday, 19 February 2020

Island Bay was the scene of another burst pipe in February, 2020.

Wellington's wastewater system is failing after years of under-investment - and the overdue repair bill for the city's leaky plumbing may end up costing ratepayers.

At an urgent closed-door meeting council meeting, Wellington Water admitted it did not have complete understanding of the state of the water network.

The meeting was temporarily interrupted with news of yet another pipe bursting - this time spraying water across Liffey St in Island Bay.

Wellington is not the only city which has under-invested in underground pipe infrastructure, but ratepayers in the capital may need to stump up more cash in coming years to address the problem.

Mayor Andy Foster said Wellington Water was 'under pressure' and accepted it had failed to adequately inform the community about faults, leaks and other issues.

The council spends around $180 million a year on 3000 kilometres of pipes, and that figure is scheduled to increase in coming years.

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At the meeting, Wellington City Council and Wellington Water spoke about asset inspection, funding, CCTV cameras and cross connections.

There is still no timeframe on when the Moa Point break will be fixed, with trucks continuing to transport sludge from there to the Southern Landfill. (File photo)

'There will be some things we will tweak and some areas where more resourcing will go into, some of those might flow into the annual plan and it'll be a relatively modest scale.'

Councillor Diane Calvert has called the escalating leaks a 'civil emergency', while Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons said it was a 'crisis'.

Contractors are still working to lay a new pipe under Willis St following a leak which resulted in hundreds of litres of wastewater spilling into Wellington Harbour (file photo).

'[Wellington Water] tried to give an impression that they were in control, but really its pretty clear that the issues are widespread and fundamental.

'Everybody that gave advice in the meeting indicated there had been a historical under-investment in water infrastructure in Wellington,' Fitzsimons said.

Wellington Water was failing to meet five of the six targets set out by the council, she said.

Those included e-coli levels at freshwater sites, attendance times to fix leaks, and dry weather sewage overflows.

'We need a fundamental look into the nature of Wellington Water and their approach to managing water infrastructure in our city, because residents deserve better.'

When asked if she thought Wellington Water had been negligent, she responded: 'I couldn't confidently say they hadn't.'

Wellington Water network manager Gary Cullen last week called the spate of recent issues a coincidence, and in January Mayor Andy Foster called the leaks 'appallingly bad luck'.

A contractor at the Moa Point treatment connects a waste pipe to a sewage truck before it is transported to the Southern Landfill (File photo).

But a new report from Water New Zealand, a non-profit representing the water industry, revealed systematic issues across the entire network.

It was recently discovered that wastewater from a Cuba Street apartment building has been spilling into Wellington Harbour for at least 10 years.

Thirty-three per cent of wastewater pipes in Wellington are in poor or very poor condition, the Water NZ National Performance review found, the worst of all major centres.

Wellington's pipes had an average age of 51 years, behind only Dunedin.

The total number of pipe leaks in Wellington jumped from 10,000 in 2014 to 16,000 in 2019.

The report predicted the annual cost of upgrading and maintaining the country's ageing wastewater infrastructure would exceed $1 billion.

It noted Wellington was not the only city which had under-invested in underground pipe infrastructure, but that ratepayers in the capital may need to stump up more cash in coming years to address the problem.

Technical manager Noel Roberts said Wellington households paid an average of $459 a year on wastewater, below the national average of $492 a year.

Last year's capital expenditure - the amount spent on building and repairing pipelines - was the lowest in the country at just $167 per property. Auckland spent $636 per property.

'Spending on wastewater has trailed drinking water, with the city's recent focus on building resilience,' Roberts said.

'It is likely the city will need more dollars injected into the wastewater network.'

Foster said the council spent around $180 million per year on 3000 kilometres of pipes, and that figure was scheduled to increase in coming years.

'Our first obligation to ratepayers is to ensure that money's being efficiently spent,' he said.

Water NZ principal data scientist Lesley Smith said funding for wastewater infrastructure had consistently lost out to more attractive city projects, with annual spending falling well behind the rate at which assets were depreciating.

Water metering, in which users paid for the amount of water they used, had worked well in other regions and could be successful in Wellington.

'Underground infrastructure is competing for the attention of councillors. It tends to be a little bit of a poor cousin to above-ground projects like roads, libraries, and parks.'

An Auditor-General report also recently exposed major gaps in the country's water management systems, and called for greater national leadership.

There is still no timeframe on when the Moa Point break will be fixed, with trucks continuing to transport sludge from there to the Southern Landfill.