‘It’s such a circus’: Diary of a (very gushy) leak
Saturday, 20 January 2024
When a leak appeared outside her neighbour’s property, reporter Nikki Macdonald had a firsthand encounter with the byzantine bureaucracy that is Wellington Water.
When we returned from out of town this week, we expected a dry pavement. With the parched capital entering level two water restrictions, surely our street’s leak would finally have been fixed?
But there it still is, four months and eight reports later. Only now, there’s a great gash in the pavement, and the splodge of damp footpath has turned into a monumental gush that fills a 10-litre bucket in six seconds. That’s enough water to supply 411 people a day, rushing straight out to sea.
But my inbox delivers a still more frustrating revelation. A spreadsheet of the leak’s reports and their follow-up actions shows Wellington Water decided way back on September 14 that the leak was a private problem. It did nothing for seven weeks, before sending the property owner three “letters to fix”.
Except the owners aren’t currently living there, and the letters never reached them. And on the seven occasions it’s been re-reported since, Wellington Water appears to have dismissed it as a private leak, without following up to find out why nothing had been done.
So on Tuesday, I let the property owners know that Wellington Water think the leak is their problem. Being responsible people, they immediately ring a plumber. He arrives on Wednesday, but reckons the leak is in public pipes after all.
Also on Tuesday, I ask Wellington Water why it has been ignoring repeated reports of the leak.
Wellington Water says when private leaks aren’t fixed, it works with the relevant council to follow-up. Escalation measures can include door-knocking, threats to restrict water pressure, and actually restricting water pressure. None of which happened here. There was also no attempt at contact by anything other than snail mail, despite the owners also having emailed and texted Wellington Water and the council.
In explanation, Wellington Water says it “is only funded to address leaks in the public water networks…and is concentrating on the largest and most urgent leaks”.
On Thursday morning, Wellington Water’s PR guy calls. I mention I live next door.
Shortly after, three Wellington Water trucks and traffic management pull up. “Finally,” I think. But they’re just the reinstatement team that asphalts over holes after repairs.
They’re there to redo a previous patch-up job at a neighbouring property, but can hardly walk past the river of water flowing down the drain.
One guy lifts the leak’s yellow cover and looks agog at the bubbling hole. “This needs to be addressed, urgently,” he says. “I can’t understand why this hasn’t been repaired.”
“You and the rest of the world,” I reply.
Ninety minutes later - and three hours after my chat with WW’s PR team - an actual repair guy arrives. He’s been urgently diverted from a job across town. He reckons the problem is a previous lazy toby repair. He promises to do it once and do it properly. Let’s hope he has.
That rare buried old toby is the reason it initially thought the problem was a private one, Wellington Water says. (Despite repair guy and the plumber seemingly working that out in mere minutes). It apologises for the “confusion and distress”.
“This leak was initially reported as a private leak and we acknowledge this was not accurate and meant the leak was not addressed in a timely manner,” Wellington Water writes.
Would anything have happened if I hadn’t started asking questions? Hard to say for sure, but whoever covered the weeping hole must have seen how bad it was, and no urgent repair team was dispatched then. And two Wellington Water guys visited on Tuesday, watching as I videoed the flow, and no repair team was urgently sent then.
Either way, this is the diary of an epic bureaucratic fail.
7 September 2023, 6.29pm
First report to Wellington City Council of water leaking from a pipe by the toby, on the footpath side, on Ōwhiro Bay Parade. The job is referred to Wellington Water (WW) and assigned a number - 798648.
14 September 2023, 1.58pm
WW visits to investigate. “Some trouble identifying where exactly the water leak was coming from,” the workers note. But after digging up the pipes around the toby, they conclude the fault is not in public pipes.
15 September 2023, 8.06am
WW texts the property owner that the job has been placed on hold “because we either need to investigate the issue further or more planning is required to complete the repair”. No mention of the fault being their responsibility. The message links to a job status map, which the home owner kept checking for updates. Four months later, it still showed the leak as “under investigation”. Wellington Water says that’s because it received no response to its fix-it letters.
22 September 2023, 9.13am
WW notes leak has been “Reassigned to private leak”
2 November, 10.20am
WW notes “Sent letter First Notice to Fix”.
9 November, 11.32am
Property owner emails Wellington City Council:
“This is still leaking and we have had no further update other than further investigation required but it’s been months now. Can you please advise what is being done?”
Query is referred to WW, but the owner receives no response.
15 November, 1.29pm
WW notes (again): “1st Notice to Fix Letter”.
20 November, 2.24pm
Note that ADR (engineers) identified a leak, at 15 litres per minute, close to toby.
WW response: “Private leak so we are closing this job.”
30 November
WW notes: “Sent 2nd Notice to Fix Letter”
2 December, 8.29am
Another report: “Water leak at toby.“
That might have been the Wellington City Council guy who parked outside and shook his head in dismay, before optimistically phoning it in. We’ve already reported it, I assured him.
WW response: “related to 798648, closing job”
18 December
A glimmer of hope as an official-looking guy pulls up. “Are you here to fix the leak?” I ask hopefully. He’s just cleaning out gutters, he laughs. “Do you know how much leaks there are in Wellington? It’s f…ing crazy,” he says.
30 December, 11.39am
Yet another report:
“Water leak coming out of concrete about the same amount as a hose pipe left on.”
WW response: “Related to 798648, closing job”
1 January 2024, 4.08pm
Report to Wellington City Council:
“There are four leaks outside this address. 1 from the toby, one from the hydrant and 2 on the pavement. Please assess.”
No action documented.
1 January, 5.22pm
Another report:
“There is a substantial leak (10-15L per minute) across the footpath from a toby.”
No action documented.
7 January, 3.35pm
Report to council:
“Hole in pavement with leak. Please attend.”
No action documented, but at some stage, someone comes and places a big yellow cover over the water-filled hole.
16 January, about 9am
Two Wellington Water guys visit in a truck, stand around for about 15 minutes, drive off. Nothing happens.
16 January, 11am
I look through a WW job sheet obtained under the Official Information Act, and see that WW thinks it’s a private leak. So I do what WW could have done any time in the past four months - text the property owners to let them know WW thinks the leak is their problem, and has sent “letters to fix”. Now living out of town, the owners say they never received any letters, despite having mail redirected. They immediately call a plumber.
16 January, 2.17pm
I contact WW’s media team, asking why they keep dismissing the leak reports without action, and what the process is for following up on private leaks that don’t get fixed.
17 January, 2pm
The plumber arrives and whips off the big yellow cover. He reckons the fault is on public pipes, and calls WW to tell them.
“It’s such a circus,” the property owner laments.
18 January, 8.30am
WW’s media guy calls. I mention that I live next door to the leak.
18 January, 10am
Hallelujah - three WW trucks and traffic management pull up. But no, they’re just the reinstatement team, here to redo a patch-up after a previous leak repair at the neighbour’s. Appalled by the amount of water rushing down the drain, they try to call it in, but can’t get through.
18 January, 11.30am
An actual WW repair guy turns up, having been urgently diverted 30 minutes earlier from a job across town.
By 1pm, the leak is repaired and patched and the truck and gushing waterfall are gone. WW messages the property owner, on the same number they’ve had for four months, to say “We are happy to advise you that we have repaired the fault”.
WW laters emails me to acknowledge that it was, in fact, a public leak. “We apologise for the confusion this may have caused the property owner and nearby residents.”
Four months, millions of litres of wasted water, for less than two hours’ work.