Big drop in leaks but ageing pipes still problem

Tuesday, 23 July 2024

Wellington Water chair Nick Leggett is pleased that the number of leaks has reduced significantly but says the councils must do more renew old and leaky pipes.

The number of leaks in the region has fallen dramatically since the beginning of the year when both Wellington City and Hutt City councils committed more money to fix the problem.

But Wellington Water boss Nick Leggett, although pleased to see good progress, has warned against complacency, saying the battle to stop the region leaking like a sieve is far from won.

Wellington Water has also made significant progress on a $93 million project to increase the size of Te Marua storage lakes and the pipe that supplies water to Wellington City and Porirua.

a leak flowing from what appears to be a storm water drain has caused water to cover the north bound lane of Jervois Quay.

The possibility of tough water restrictions last summer focused Wellingtonians’ attention on the need to save water. Wellington Water is working towards saving 7.4 million litres a day to avoid water restrictions this summer.

To achieve that it needs to reduce leaks, change the pressure in pipes, increase storage and encourage residents to continue to save water.

But it was difficult to get on top of leaks, when much of the underground pipe network was at the end of its life.

Wellington Water fixed 240 leaks last week, including at least one in Upper Hutt.

“The truth is that we have a lot of pipes that need replacing and not just a short-term patch-up job that represents a short-term solution,” Leggett said.

While so much water was being lost to leaks, Leggett said Wellington Water was doing little more than treading water.

Ratepayers across the region would experience significant rate increases over the next few years, which Leggett predicted would make it clear just how much it was going to cost to bring Three Waters up to scratch.

Wellington Water could not continue to take more and more water from the Hutt River, Leggett said, as it would have a major impact on the health of the river.

Over the last three or four years leaks have sprung up everywhere, including this one in Aro Valley.

The solution was to increase pipe renewals and Leggett hoped councils would continue to increase their investment over the next 10 years.

Wellington Water is facing a major upheaval over the next 12 to 18 months, with the Government signalling it is creating a new water entity, Local Water Done Well, to replace it.

There was a real danger that staff with years of local knowledge, often gleaned from experience working for local councils, would be lost, Leggett said.

The new entity would be a “very different beast”, he said.

Former Wellington mayor Dame Kerry Prendergast is working with local body representatives from across the region (including Wairarapa and Horowhenua) to set up the new entity.

Leaky figures

The backlog of leaks dropped from 3369 in January 2024, to 1601 at the beginning of July.
On July 19, Wellington Water reported it had fixed 240 leaks the previous week.
There are currently 1672 open confirmed leaks (leaks that have been assessed) and 163 unconfirmed leaks across the region. This time last year there were 2937 confirmed leaks and 89 unconfirmed leaks.
At this time last year there were 1657 leaks in Wellington City, there are currently 1005 waiting to be fixed. The number in Lower Hutt has fallen from 664 to 343 and for Porirua there were 194 as opposed to 85 today.
Wellington Water has said that 44% of all drinking water is being lost to leaks. Although that figure should be reduced by the recent reduction in leaks, it does not have a current figure for how much is being lost.