Time for decade-old leak to be fixed, Upper Hutt resident urges

Friday, 19 January 2024

Rose Vailima has had a leak on her footpath and berm, damaging the road, for longer than she can remember. With Wellington running out of water she reckons it is time to finally fix her long running leak.

Upper Hutt resident Rose Vailima has waited so long to get a leak fixed, she has lost count of how many times she has reported it.

When first spoken to by The Post, Vailima estimated the leak’s age at seven but after contacting a former neighbour, now living in Papamoa, she said it could be as far back as 15 years.

“My old neighbour shifted from here ten years ago and it (the leak) had been going well before that.“

Wellington Water, which this week moved the region to level two water restrictions, has been warning Wellingtonians they must reduce water use to help avoid tighter restrictions.

Upper Hutt has the unwanted title of the ‘leakiest’ city in the region, with Wellington Water last year saying it was losing more than 50% due to leaky pipes

Publicity over the need to save water had Vailima’s blood boiling and this week she rang Wellington Water to once again ask for it to be fixed.

The staff member downplayed the seriousness of the leak, she says. That resulted in a threat to get Fair Go involved and Wellington Water subsequently checking out the leak.

Although Vailima concedes it is a small leak, it had ruined her berm, cracked the driveway and undermined the road.

“It is also dangerous because it is very slimy.”

After telling The Post that leak had been going for seven years, Rose Vailima contacted a former neighbour who said it had been going for between 10 and 15 years.

Some years ago, she spent $1700 trying to fix it herself. After so many years she hopes, that with the region fast running out of water, Wellington Water will finally spring into action and sort it out.

Wellington Water’s Lisa Strickland says the area is known for “ongoing groundwater issues” and their records show the requests to fix the leak go back to 2016.

After she complained to Wellington Water, a contractor came to have a look and mark out the nearby toby.

Wellington Water planned to renew the pipe that was causing the leak.

“We expect this to be completed by the end of next week.”

Wellington Water staff work on a water leak on the corner of Jervois Quay and Hunter St. (File photo)

Frustrated with the lack of action, Vailima posted pictures on social media where a number of people suggested going to Fair Go.

In October the Post reported the concerns by Cr Matt Carey over the level of water being lost in Upper Hutt.

Wellington Water told the home-owner that it could be months before this leak in Naenae is fixed.

Carey noted the council is spending $10.4 million a year on drinking water and with more than half the water being lost, that equates to an approximate loss of $14,900 a day.

In December, we reported that Upper Hutt had 269 km of pipes needing replacing within 30 years. It is currently replacing leaky pipes at 1.65km per year.

The estimated unbudgeted cost of replacing Upper Hutt’s pipes is $500m.

Documents released under Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, show that in 2023 Wellington Water had warned Upper Hutt their assets were ageing at a concerning level.

“Historic underinvestment had resulted in aged infrastructure increasingly prone to failure.“

Rapid urban growth had also added to the problems and a “significant” investment in Three Waters was required.

On Thursday, The Post was sent a photo of substantial leak in the Lower Hutt suburb of Naenae with water “spurting” over the footpath. The home owner received an email from the Hutt City Council saying the leak had been logged with Wellington Water.

“At the moment, it is taking several weeks to a few months for jobs like this to be attended.”

Across the region, Wellington has more than 3000 leaks on its books.