The council’s delayed response to fix a burst wastewater pipe is causing huge upset to people living in a North Shore suburb after raw sewage leaked into their homes.
“It is very frustrating,” Beach Haven resident Catherine Gibson told the Herald.
“We reported it to the Council almost two weeks ago and nobody has come to look at it. The smell is very strong.
“I have no words for the sh*tshow that this is.”
The Rangatira Rd neighbourhood had been hit hard by slips during the Auckland Anniversary floods. Gibson’s property was red-stickered due to the high risk of another slip and external damage.
But since then the couple has worked hard and spent $20,000 to clean up the dirt threatening their house.
“We want it to get back in shape so it can be reassessed. Our kids are not coping with the constant move from one temporary accommodation to another.
“We are paying sometimes $2000 per week for shelter and insurance can only pay us up to $30,000 for it.
“We can’t afford a house after April. It would be hard paying for temporary accommodation and a mortgage at the same time.”
The raw sewage had added extra pressure on the couple, causing an unbearable stench to engulf the area. The site is a hazard and basically, makes all “our hard work amount to nothing”, Gibson said.
The large council pipe was exposed after the storm in January, and the couple immediately informed the council about it.
And last Monday when Cyclone Gabrielle struck the pipe burst, sending sewage discharges to nearby homes.
The sewage had gone through her neighbour’s entire yellow-stickered house, Gibson said.
“We have had to put our own temporary fix in to direct it to a drain but the smell is awful and it’s still coming down the bank onto all our properties.
“The sewage is just adding more frustration and devastation to those who are already displaced.”
Watercare workers had visited their properties to have a look at the pipe but had not acted on fixing the damage, Gibson’s husband Darren told the Herald.
“Myself and the neighbours have worked hard on the repairs to our properties, we are doing the work. If the weather is going to be bad over the weekend why can’t they fix it before then?
“It is causing all of us a lot of stress. The leaking sewage has reached the stormwater drain. [A] few houses down there is a stream, it might enter that, and then the smell will amplify even more.”
Watercare Northern Operations Manager Tim Scheirlinck said the organisation first became aware of the wastewater pipeline after it was partially exposed following the Auckland floods in early January.
However, only after a landslide following Cyclone Gabrielle did the pipe joint become dislodged, allowing wastewater to overflow.
Once the cyclone had passed, Watercare disconnected the wastewater pipeline and replaced it with a temporary pipe that could mitigate, but not prevent overflows from occurring in extreme weather, Scheirlinck said.
“Due to safety concerns around the slip, we opted for a land pipe solution to allow us more time to assess the long-term servicing of the site.
“We also helped clean up properties affected by the overflows with vacuum loaders.”
He said a Watercare crew planned to return to the site this afternoon to improve the pipeline.
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