Waipukurau water scare: Strict water restrictions lift after ‘major’ burst isolated

A major water scare which hit Waipukrau this week has been resolved. Photo / Paul Taylor

A scare that saw Waipukurau’s water supply drop to critically-low levels due to a “major” pipe leak week has been resolved, with water restrictions easing for residents.

Such was the emergency on Wednesday morning that volunteer firefighters took to the streets with loudspeakers at about 6.30am to urge people to conserve water.

The wider township - which has a population of about 4000 people - relies on the Pukeora Reservoir for its water supply which dropped to a worrying 25 per cent capacity during the crisis.

It’s usually at between 70 and 90 per cent.

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council put strict Level 4 water restrictions in place, which is a total outdoor water ban, as they scrambled to find the leak.

The leak was found in an underground pipe along Pōrangahau Rd which is set to be decommissioned in the coming year.

The pipe no longer supplies water to any homes but is still connected to the reservoir, and is used to supply water for firefighters.

Workers were able to turn off the supply to that pipe and stop the leak once it had been located at about 7am on Wednesday.

Central Hawke’s Bay District Council chief executive Doug Tate said the reservoir was back to normal levels by Wednesday night, above 70 per cent capacity.

He thanked residents for their help in conserving water during the incident.

Council contractors at the site of Wednesday’s major water leak on Pōrangahau Rd. Photo / Suplied

“Some of the delays we had [in finding the leak] was we didn’t know where the break was,” he said, as no homes lost water.

“The line that broke we did a really major upgrade through there during 2022 and 2023, basically making that line redundant.

“Basically at the end of this year that whole line is going to be decommissioned.

“All the households have a brand new pipe which we installed in 2022 and 2023 and this is the old pipe, so all the houses have been taken off it. It is just there for [supplying] firefighters.

“If we hadn’t done that repair, not only would we have had water restrictions but we would have had hundreds of people down Pōrangahau Rd without water.”

The line will be repaired so it can continue to supply firefighters, until it is decommissioned.

There are sensors on an outlet pipe from the reservoir and also a sensor that measures the overall capacity of the reservoir, which both set off alarms for the council. The pipe burst at about 3am on Wednesday.

“The sheer volume when it blew was just so significant, that it was 500 litres per second [coming out of the reservoir]. That is a lot of water.”

A debrief will be held by the council to see what needs to be improved in future.

Level 2 water restrictions are now in place which means sprinklers and hoses are to be used on alternate days for a maximum of one hour, and not between the hours of 9am and 5pm (sprinklers) and 10am and 4pm (hoses).

A further project that will add resilience to the council’s water network in Waipukurau commenced in 2019, being the Waipukurau Second Supply project. It has suffered delays due to the cyclone and financial pressures.