Frustration growing over leaks and the pleas to save water
Tuesday, 6 February 2024
Wellingtonians are becoming increasingly frustrated at being asked to save water, while all around them pipes are leaking like a sieve.
There are currently more than 3200 leaks waiting to be repaired. At the same time residents are being asked to save water to avoid taps running dry.
A request on Neighbourly for people with a leaky toby, resulted in a deluge of pictures of leaky tobies.
Do you have a leaky toby? Email photos and videos to news@thepost.co.nz
Lydia Grigg said there are three long term leaks in her street, one of which was breaking up the road.
“It makes me really angry to hear the mayor say we will have to have water meters - a wasteful cost to set up and maintain - money that would be better spent on fixing the leaks.”
Louise Witts said a long running toby leak in Karori had been repaired once, but was still leaking to the extent that it had attracted the attention of ducks.
Houghton St resident Rob Birse had a leaking toby under the footpath, which had previously been fixed.
The leak was not obvious until the lid was taken off and he suspected it was losing a significant amount of water.
“The city is broken, how have we got to this point where the council is asking us to save water?”
Odette Coates of Hataitai had her leak fixed on Friday after The Post contacted Wellington Water for comment.
In January she wrote to Wellington Water questioning why the leak, which was turning her path into a slippery stream, had not been repaired.
“It is now seven weeks and three days since first reporting this issue. Which, if managed earlier, would have saved thousands and thousands of litres of water.”
Wellington Water prioritises leaks, based on four categories. Although there is an unknown number of tobies leaking across the region, tobies are usually in the lowest category due to the relatively small amount of water being lost.
Although Master Plumbers had said its members were keen to help fix tobies, Wellington Water chief executive Tonia Haskell last week said that was not realistic. Plumbers do not have the necessary skills and it is not a shortage of skilled workers that is stopping Wellington Water from fixing more leaks, it is a lack of funding.
Wellington Water customer operations manager Kevin Locke said that with limited funding, it had to concentrate on the leaks losing the most water.
“That way we have the greatest impact on reducing the amount of water lost.”
He did, however, have some good news for Wellington City ratepayers.
Extra funding provided by the council enabled it to “bundle” repairs on a suburb by suburb basis.
“This is a more efficient way to address the leaks, and it is good for customers as we can let them know about the work in advance and reduce unexpected disruption.”
It is currently working in Tawa, Johnsonville and Newlands. “With greater funding proposed for next financial year by WCC, we are hoping to be able to make this more efficient method part of our business-as-usual approach.”
Wellington Water’s social media pages feature numerous stories about how many leaks it has fixed and explanations about prioritising leaks. It is questionable, however, if the message is getting across.
Last week, it posted that it had fixed 135 leaks the week before. Don Gould responded that he found such messaging “downright offensive” as it missed the point.
“The key message that your organisation does not appear to be getting is that you simply don't have enough crews on board to do the urgent work plus also catch up the minor work and that has now got to a state of 45% of the water leaking from the network which is completely and utterly unacceptable.”
Commenting on a Wellington Water explanation on why councils are still using sprinklers, Eastbourne resident Katherine Fahey said two leaks had been “gushing“ water since Christmas.
“It is hard to justify water restrictions when leaks like these are allowed to gush for weeks non stop.”
Wellington Water replied spelling out its position.
“Absolutely appreciate how frustrating it is to be asked to conserve water when there are leaks across the network. Unfortunately, we're up against a significant backlog due to historic underinvestment. It's a problem that can't be fixed overnight - and summer's here. In order to make the most impact on water loss, we prioritise the biggest leaks that are losing the most water. That means that some smaller leaks may take longer to fix.“
Correction:** An earlier version of this story had a comment wrongly attributed to Don Long, when it should have been Don Gould.**