Wellington leaks taking 17 times longer to fix than other cities

Sunday, 10 March 2024

Wellington vs Christchurch which one is better?

Most leaks in Wellington take 17 times longer to fix than they would do in Auckland.
It takes almost 40 days for “non-urgent” leaks to be fixed and 13.4 hours for “urgent” leaks to be sorted.
A Wellington Water spokesperson said it was contributing to the risk of acute water shortages.

Wellingtonians wanting to get the leaks on their streets and properties fixed are waiting 17 times longer than other cities, new data shows.

While those in the other major centres, Auckland and Christchurch, have to wait only two days and 7 hours or 18 hours, respectively, Wellington city centre residents wait roughly 40 days for their “non-urgent” leaks to get fixed.

The data, released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act to Stuff, shows the gulf between the capital city and other major centres.

Leaks across Wellington City continue to cause issues, with potholes being created and footpaths becoming rivers.

While slightly better, Hutt City Council and Porirua City Council were waiting almost as long, with 32 days, or 30 in 2022/23.

Residents living within the Upper Hutt City Council area had a wait time of around 21 days.

When looking at “urgent” leak response times, Wellington was again the slowest with 13.4 hours, followed by Auckland at 3.9 hours and then Christchurch at just under 2 hours.

The capital is dealing with fewer leaks in terms of volume, just shy of 10,000 in 2022/23. Auckland in around the same time period had 30,767, while Christchurch had 19,865.

A Wellington Water spokesperson admitted that due to the volume of leaks and the resources available to them, they “simply can’t fix them all”.

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Costs, as well as health and safety requirements, had significantly increased, they said, meaning they were fixing fewer leaks for the same amount of money – and it was taking longer.

Leaks are taking far longer to fix in the capital, than they are in other major cities.

“This is a symptom of underinvestment and means that water assets in the region are ageing at a rate faster than we can replace them.”

The region faces a significant challenge with the ageing infrastructure, they said.

The spokesperson said they were concerned about how the growing number of leaks and the backlog would impact locals.

It was impacting the risk of a potential acute water shortage, they said.

“Unfortunately, we are not anticipating any immediate improvements with reducing the backlog.”

WaterCare head of service delivery Sharon Danks said the company survey around two-thirds of their network each year – which has prevented the loss of around 10 million litres per day.

“All water networks around the world experience leaks, and Auckland is no exception.”

Danks said they use a priority system to ensure as much water is saved as possible, by fixing the biggest leaks first.