Wellington Water, Wellington City Council and the weeping home owner

Wednesday, 24 June 2026

OPINION: It’s 8am Sunday. I am on the phone to Wellington City Council’s “Fix it” line. I am crying.

I have a stream of water flowing through my property and into the neighbour’s. It’s drinking water, from an old copper pipe that officialdom seems not to know exists, or have any records of. It runs up from the street through an easement attached to the property just above me, and sits below a thick concrete wall.

The saga ‒ because while it really is a comedy of errors none of it is funny ‒ began at least six months ago. An on-road lateral (a pipe from the main supply) had been leaking for some time. Centimetres away from that there was also water seeping from a neighbour’s driveway and a nearby bank. Water was also visibly pooling under and alongside a section of road.

Reports were made. The council passed them on to Wellington Water. The lateral was fixed, the neighbour’s toby was replaced. When the other issues (the seeping asphalt, the dripping bank) were pointed out there was a “shrug”.

They were, apparently, separate jobs from the one that had been reported. The leaking continued.

Another “job fix” was logged. It was passed through to Wellington Water. Their response? There were no records of “a current leak” and they would need to receive a request from Wellington City Council to investigate.

The problem was duly reported to the council. Their response? “Drinking, waste and storm water services are managed by Wellington Water on behalf of Wellington City Council. We have passed the details of this problem to them.”

A fortnight later Wellington Water emailed me noting a technician had investigated and identified a private leak at a neighbouring address.

However, I was asked to either hire a plumber to look into it or contact whoever owned the property to get them to deal with it.

“Could you please engage a plumber to investigate as soon as possible. If you are not the property owner and are the tenant at this property, would you be able to pass the owner and/or property manager details through so we can make contact please. It would also be appreciated if you could contact the owner and/or property manager directly to advise them.”

The leaking continued.

But worse was to come. Over the last couple of months more leaks have appeared across a wider area.

More reports were logged. Photographs were sent. On June 9 I emailed the council. “Hello at WW and WCC, this is a last resort call for someone to meet me at (street) to discuss the mess that is being caused by water seeping out of banks, roads and now a shared path … Every time I inquire about it I am told the issue has been resolved. It hasn't and is getting worse. There isn't one leak but a whole hillside of them … bring gumboots.”

Silence.

Help!

Almost at wit’s end I contacted my local councillor, Diane Calvert. As a journalist I have her number - a privilege other people don’t have.

She made some inquiries. The response from Wellington Water was that the network maintenance team had previously responded to reports of a water leak near (address deleted). “Their findings suggested that there may be a leak present on the potable water network. Upon further investigation, it was confirmed there are no potable water leaks (on public or private infrastructure) in the area.”

She asked to meet someone on site. That was a fortnight ago. There has yet to be a meeting. But then a new leak appeared ‒ on a path shared by several homes in the street, mine included.

Back came the technician with his leak detector. He listens, he discovers there is water running somewhere through my system. And indeed there is, from that mysterious copper pipe.

The water is, in technician parlance, potable. Visions of Olympic-pool sized amounts of drinking water disappearing down the hillside take shape. The technician suggests I get it sorted, starting with turning off the street toby, which should cut off the supply from the mains. The one he says is mine isn’t. It’s my neighbour’s.

A previous search for my toby had proved fruitless, despite this advice from the council ‒ “If you don't know where your toby is, look it up on our water and drainage map”.

I call a plumber who turns off the connection on my side of the boundary. The water is still running. The plumber discusses the issue with the WW technician, noting the pipe is actually on someone else’s property.

We search for my on-street toby again. The plumber hikes up the hill to try a few on the street above. No luck. He puts in a “fix it” to the council to locate it.

It’s Friday afternoon. The plumber has gone. The technician has gone. She’ll be right, apparently. The water is still running. I have no idea what to do.

On Saturday I text Calvert saying I’m concerned. She suggests I log it again, noting this time that it’s urgent and potentially a safety risk. She also makes some inquiries. Wellington Water emails back: “The resident on XX street with a significant private leak has been informed. We expect a very quick resolution.“

The plumber says he has asked the council to locate the toby.

On Sunday I am in tears. I call the “fix it” line. I’m told that they’ll get onto it next week. Unless the water is spurting up into the air, a job is not urgent. It’s spurting, but sideways, and sounds like a running brook.

I call poor Calvert again. She grabs her gumboots and drives over. She takes photographs and says she’ll see where things are at. On Monday she tells me Wellington Water will be in touch. They have been looking at various maps (me too!) and wonder whether the old copper pipe was a pipe that led up to the house above but was capped off at the time of development.

I can only hope they’re right, because last night I had a call from someone from Wellington Water asking me if I had logged a job about a leak.