KEY POINTS:
Ratepayers' money is pouring down the drain in Penrose because Metrowater has not responded to repeated calls to fix a big leak.
"It's like a river running down the street. Swimming pools, Olympic-sized swimming pools of water being wasted," builder Sam Finnie said.
Mr Finnie and factory project manager Wayne Prendergast have contacted the Auckland City Council-owned water business three times since May 11 about the leak in Autumn Place. Four weeks later, water is still spilling from the broken hydrant.
"I have rung them twice personally and Wayne has rung them once. They have come out, cut the concrete round the hydrant and said they would come back," Mr Finnie said.
Twelve days after the visit by Metrowater contractors, Mr Finnie rang Metrowater and was told "we are waiting for a part". When he rang faults again on Tuesday, the operator could not find any record of the leak.
"My water rates are going up and I see this. As a ratepayer, I have done all I am supposed to have done. It is an absolute total waste," said Mr Finnie, who is a Manukau ratepayer.
Mr Prendergast said: "It looks like water is just a money-making machine but when they have an opportunity to save water they don't do it. ... "
The council has forced Metrowater to raise water bills by 19.6 per cent in consecutive years to pay $280 million into council coffers over 10 years. Critics have slammed the council for "price gouging" the water company to avoid the politically unpopular alternative of higher rates.
In an opinion piece in today's Herald, Mayor Dick Hubbard said if the council did not raise water bills it would have to raise rates by 5 per cent a year or cut spending by $220 million over eight years.
A Metrowater spokesman said the leak was lodged on May 11 and a company contractor turned up on May 16 to fix the leak. Because it would have involved disconnecting the water supply to local factories, the contractor pledged to come back the next day, but he didn't. The spokesman said the company was reviewing what happened since May 16 to find out what went wrong.
"It's not a good outcome as far as we are concerned but we will rectify the problem tonight."
The Herald understands that the amount of water lost from leaks has grown since Metrowater management was told to put up water bills to make bigger profits for the council.
After getting the amount of lost water under 15 per cent in 2005, the figure has shot up this year to nearly 18 per cent. The international benchmark is 12 per cent.
The spokesman said Metrowater had undertaken a significant amount of work to reduce wastage and believed it had got long-term wastage down by a minimum of 1 per cent.
"We are not seeing that coming through because of the way wastage figures are calculated, but we will be reporting on that over the next six-to-nine months," the spokesman said.
Do you know of a water leak on public land that needs fixing? Email: newsdesk@nzherald.co.nz
Big Leak
May 11: Metrowater notified of leak.
May 16: Metrowater workers turn up but do not plug leak.
May 28: Metrowater says it is waiting for a part to fix leak.
June 5: Metrowater cannot find record of leak.
June 6: Water still spilling from leak.
