A water pipe burst in the Auckland suburb of Remuera, sending water gushing on to the street.
Video / Desley Simpson
Some residents in Auckland’s eastern suburbs have had their water restored after three pipe faults in 24 hours saw people told told to use portaloos, public toilets, or facilities at local sports clubs.
Watercare also offered to drop off fresh water at the doorsteps of people’s homes who are struggling to get to tankers stationed in Remuera, Meadowbank, and St Johns.
About 200 properties have not had water since yesterday after three pipe faults in 24 hours.
Updating the situation, Watercare’s head of delivery Sharon Danks told Newstalk ZB this afternoon that “all the failures have been repaired” and the mains have been recharged.
“Most people will have water again and [we] will slowly repressurise the zone over the next couple of hours.
“We’ve known these mains are quite old and probably our future proofing program for these mains are that they’re scheduled for renewal within the next two years.
Danks said it’s “always a challenge when we have three subsequent breaks, one after another”.
“We’re always expecting the break to be repaired, to move on, but as the as the breaks continue, we did provide tankers and we had our customer liaison staff on site, giving bottled water and talking to customers. We do recognise that extended outages are frustrating for customers and it’s an inconvenience to them, obviously.”
The burst pipe at the corner of Remuera Rd and Koraha St, Remuera, meant no water for properties in the area. Photo / Facebook
This morning, Watercare apologised and said it was working to repair burst water mains and restore supply.
It had also stationed a water tanker in the neighbourhood for people to fill up containers for free.
Watercare said: “If you require toilet facilities, there are portaloos located outside Countdown Meadowbank or we encourage you to use public toilets or those at local sports clubs”.
A Watercare tanker was in the parking lot of the Meadowbank Shopping Centre, supplying fresh water to residents.
A Watercare employee told the Herald people had been queuing for fresh water since the tanker was set up this morning.
“It was really busy this morning, waves of people wanted to fill up their water bottles,” he said.
He wasn’t sure how long he would remain in the car park.
A Watercare tanker has been set up in the parking lot of the Meadowbank Shopping Centre, supplying fresh water to residents. Photo / Ben Plummer
Auckland Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson said a large pipe buried beneath the ground had burst overnight - the third serious failure in a day.
She said initially the first burst water pipe that cut water happened at the corner of Koraha Street and Remuera Road and was repaired yesterday.
“My understanding is there was a person on the road with medical issues, so they worked hard to fix that.
“A second break was escalated at 4.28pm yesterday, at this time the water was still partially on. The water was turned off soon after and the initial fault was repaired by about 10pm.”
Water bottles from the Countdown inside the Meadowbank Shopping Centre were in short supply as residents stocked up. Photo / Ben Plummer
Three portable toilets have been set up outside the Meadowbank Shopping Centre amid water outages across Meadowbank and Remuera. Photo / Ben Plummer
However, a third and more serious fault was discovered overnight.
“The third problem is a linear problem that is four pipe lengths. It is a large pipe, 225mm in diameter, and it is under a lot of concrete,” Simpson said.
“There are three teams on site for the large pipe. They have one team looking at getting through to the pipe, another team looking at valve options, and a third team looking at whether they need other methods of supply because the repair won’t be a fast one - for example, an overland pipe.”
Simpson estimated there were 201 customers without water and customers in the eastern part of the Hobson Zone had low pressures.
“It’s a pretty bad mix of issues in a small space. Watercare is aware of what is happening,” she said.
“It’s another example of a failure on the system and it’s becoming completely unacceptable to get broken pipes in the network affecting water to Auckland residents.”
