Hastings water leaks: 116 in a month, and that's good!

The number of water leaks called into council in the past year in Havelock North. Graphic / Aaron Bryan

It's a map of tiny red dots. But each one represents an event in the past year that's lost Hastings potentially thousands of litres of precious drinking water.

What's possibly more astonishing is that the year of leaks is not even unusual.

Hawke's Bay Today has taken numerous calls, particularly from Havelock North residents, over summer, concerned about water running down roadways from burst and leaky pipes.

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But Hastings District Council says its data shows things, compared with previous years, are actually improving.

Havelock North resident Maria van Dien said she contacted the council about three leaks near her home on Gillean St.

"It just upsets me to see perfectly clean water, which I know is precious, going to waste."

The leak has since been repaired but she felt many people would get a "fright" if they realised just how much water was being lost.

Maria van Dien said she would love to know just how much water is literally going down the drain in Havelock North each year. Photo / Paul Taylor

She was surprised there hadn't been more of a fuss about the problem and wondered if people needed to be more vigilant.

"I would like the council to get more proactive, or change their project or contract management to get on top of these leaks, and not let them go on and on for weeks."

Hastings District Council says the number of leaks appears to have been on a downward trend over the past four months, dropping from 206 in November 2020 to 116 last month.

In January 2021, council responded to 160 leaks across the district - 72 of which were in Hastings and 61 in Havelock North.

This was a 30 per cent decrease compared to January 2020, when council responded to 228 leaks.

Figures for February 2021, show that council responded to 116 leaks - 66 in Hastings and 38 in Havelock North.

This was a 50 per cent decrease compared to February 2020, when council responded to 236 leaks.

Napier City Council and Central Hawke's Bay District Council have yet to respond to requests for similar data for their areas of Hawke's Bay.

Hastings District Council's Three Waters manager Brett Chapman said there would always be a level of leaks in the network and resulting water loss.

"By responding to leaks as soon as we can we aim to minimise this wastage where possible."

He explained council's approach to maintaining and improving its water infrastructure network prioritised critical areas, like those where a failure would result in widespread disruption and loss of service.

"When it comes to responding to water leaks, that means priority is given to repairing those that have the potential to impact on large areas of the community, where a loss of service or failure would have significant public health consequences, or cause damage to property or affect the roading network.

"With these assets the approach is to try to replace them just before they fail and we have a programme of preventative renewals based on asset lives, condition and performance."

He said council's current and extensive drinking water upgrade programme were part of this.

Leaks which occur on private property, like one near Tanner St in Havelock North, can complicate council's response where there are multiple owners involved. Photo / Warren Buckland

One of the issues complicating council's ability to respond to leaks was where they occurred on private property.

When this happens, council issues a Notice to Fix for the property owner to make the repairs, however council will follow up within 10 days if this has not been resolved, Chapman said.

A leak on Tanner St, near the intersection of Joll Rd, was an example of this where the leak occurred on a private property with a pipe that services several dwellings meaning multiple owners were involved.

Leaks which occurred in less critical assets were repaired when and as needed, he said.

"People call us, or we identify these, and our contractor goes out to determine the cause of the leak and make the appropriate repair, or if a pipe is in poor condition, it can be replaced."

Chapman said these leaks would still be responded to and fixed within three to seven days.

"We do not always have the opportunity to replace pipes and laterals straight away the first time they fail, but if there is a situation where there are repeat failures, they will become a higher priority."

Chlorine was not considered to impact the network pipes or materials.

Most water supply networks across the world are chlorinated and Hastings District Council was no different in terms of the types of materials used and age of infrastructure.

Council continuously monitors performance.