Is it a river? Is it a waterfall? No it’s a leaky toby

Saturday, 3 February 2024

Hataitai resident has had a mini river on his section since December.

All Odette Coates wanted was someone to fix her leak.

The Hataitai resident was just one of an unknown number of Wellingtonians waiting for a toby related leak to be repaired.

Appearing to come from the connection to the toby, the leak was sending a steady stream down Ariki Road and a small torrent cascading down her section, in one spot creating a waterfall.

Five hours after The Post asked Wellington Water why it had not fixed her leak, a Wellington Water crew arrived to fix it.

There are currently more than 3200 leaks on Wellington Water’s books, an unknown number of which are dribbly tobies on public land.

Although plumbers are willing to do the work, Wellington Water says plumbers do not have the necessary qualifications and it does not have the funding required to fix the high number of leaks, including tobies.

Odette described her leak as a “free flowing stream” and despite reporting it repeatedly to Wellington Water since December 10, it was still bubbling away on Friday. Husband Brent Coates had a more colourful description.

“It is a waterfall that feeds into the mighty Ariki River.”

Water flowing down their path was undermining a retaining wall and the steep path was slippery.

“I completely agree that they should be using independent qualified plumbers to step in and get it sorted,” says Odette.

In December, Wellington Water told her it was a “medium” priority.

Brent Coates joked they were lucky to have their own water feature.

“Leaks that impact the safety of residents, damage the environment or have potential health issues are at the top of our list.”

On Friday morning, after The Post asked Wellington Water for comment, it was upgraded to “urgent” and by mid afternoon contractors were on site.

Wellington Water statistics show that a significant number of leaks involve tobies. Fixing tobies, however, is not a priority because, in most cases, the amount of water being lost is low in comparison to leaks where a pipe has burst.

Odette and Brent Coates have had to put up with a small stream running down a path on their section. On Friday Wellington Water turned up to fix it.

Master Plumbers chief executive Greg Wallace has gone public with his frustration over Wellington Water’s reluctance to let plumbers loose on the leaks.

Wellington Water chief executive Tonia Haskell said it was important to get suitably qualified people to do the work.

“The public water network is complex and drinking water legislation requires specialist knowledge, training, and qualifications for those who work on it.”

Contractors also need to provide documented evidence of their ability to comply with both health and safety, and environmental requirements as the work involves protecting public health.

Her response infuriated Wallace, who pointed out that it takes seven years for a plumber to get certification and public health is at the heart of everything they do.

He said plumbers already fix tobies on private property and with so many leaking across the region, his members are more than willing to assist Wellington Water.

Last month, Wellington Water said it could be several months before this leak in Naenae is fixed.

Wallace believed Wellington Water’s messaging around the need to save water was missing the target, because people are angry at seeing so many leaks, especially tobies, going unfixed.

In the 2022/23 financial year, 60% of repairs were for valves, tobies and hydrants, with 39% for burst pipes. Asked if the people repairing the pipes are qualified plumbers, Wellington Water replied “no”.

Haskell said there are valid reasons for not using plumbers.

The leak in Ariki Rd appeared to be from a toby. Wellington Water had known about it since December.

Repairing a toby requires locating and working around other services, using traffic management, shutting down the network and concreting.

“These are not generally services that a plumbing company offers or has experience overseeing. Additionally, currently funding is our key limitation rather than the resources to deliver repair works.”

Wellington Water was unable to say how many tobies are currently leaking.

What is a priority leak?

Wellington Water has four classifications for leaks. A low priority leak is defined as one losing less than four litres of water per minute, with no risk to public safety or property, and no loss of water pressure.

According to the Wellington Water website:

“There are more leaks than we can fix in the short term, so we focus on finding and fixing the most significant leaks in the public network. The biggest leaks tend to be underground, losing 40 litres or more a minute and are not visible to the public. This means the smallest leaks, which are quite often bubbling to the surface we struggle to get to.”