Water leak repairs cuts daily water loss by 11 million litres

Monday, 28 July 2025

Water loss across the Wellington region has dropped by 11 million litres a day, new figures from Wellington Water shows.

But total daily loss in Wellington, Porirua, Upper Hutt and Hutt City is still between about 65m to 70m litres and fixing leaks is only a band-aid solution on old pipes, Wellington Water Board chairperson Nick Leggett said.

In the last year, about 4 billion litres of drinking water was saved, due to a reduction in leaks across the public water network, the figures showed.

It was about 11m litres a day – which was four Olympic swimming pools, or the daily water use of 50,000 people. It exceeded the agreed 7.4m reduction target set by the water services authority Taumata Arowai.

“Wellington was a leaky region 18 months ago, people could see the water running down the streets. There's a lot less of that going on now,” Leggett said. “There's a greater confidence that when residents report leaks in their areas, that they’re actually prioritized, and now the money is there to fix them much faster.”

It was the result of focused investment from councils and work on the ground by staff and contractors, he said.

The figures showed the average level of water loss dropped from 41% to 37% across the 2024/25 financial year, including both public and private leaks.

About $12m was being spent a year on treating water that never reached people’s taps and at least $1m had been saved.

But it still meant about 65m to 70m litres of water was being wasted every day.

“The truth is that we could fill up the Sky Stadium once every two-and-a-half to three weeks with the water we lose as a region in that time,” Leggett said.

“The sheer volume of leaks that we’ve had to fix is a symptom of the region’s ageing network.”

While the water saving was hugely positive, leak repairs remained a band-aid solution on old pipes. It was important it was balanced with increased investment into replacement and renewal of old pipes to prevent leaks from happening in the first place and reduce the risk for years to come, he said.

Campbell Barry, Lower Hutt’s mayor and the chairperson of the Wellington Water Committee which represents the shareholding councils, recalled how close the city had come to serious water restrictions in the summer between 2023 and 2024 when thousands of litres were being lost every day through leaks.

The new figures showed the steps councils took were making a difference, he said.

“Over the last 18 months, we’ve backed Wellington Water with more funding and support to get on top of the leak backlog.

“To see public leaks drop from over 1700 in January 2024 to under 300 as of June 2025 is a massive turnaround and a real credit to the crews on the ground.”

Fixing leaks was one part of the puzzle and councils had committed to long-term solutions like water meters, boosting treatment capacity at the Te Mārua Water Treatment Plant, and planning for new storage in the future.

“Additionally, the move to a new water services entity will help us invest more efficiently and fairly across the region, while keeping costs more affordable.”

Wellington’s new water entity, with the interim name Metro Water, takes over from beleaguered Wellington Water on July 1 next year, and will run water services in Wellington City, Hutt City, Upper Hutt and Porirua. Greater Wellington Regional Council is also one of the councils that will own Metro Water.

Leggett said water meters would help focus consumers on conserving water usage but also recognise when there were leaks on their property.

As of June 2025, Wellington Water estimated there were at least 308 leaks on private property.

“The biggest issue that we've got, really is that we still probably don't know where big leaks are appearing. We only see the ones that pop up out of the ground and are really visible, but most are not.”