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A sewage leak into Whangarei Harbour is hampering clean-up efforts in the region after flooding ravaged Northland this week.
Whangarei District Council had already warned people not to gather shellfish or carry out any other activities in Whangarei Harbour while staff attempted to clean-up .
This leak is expected to add to the contamination and delay efforts to return services to normal as well as add to the already huge estimated cost of the clean-up operation.
A council spokeswoman said the break in the main was thought to have been caused by increased pressure on the pipe as a result of the storm.
The break occurred early this morning in the Okara rising main adjacent to Port Rd near the bridge over Limeburners Creek , she said.
Work crews were on site and the repair was expected to take most of the day to complete.
Traffic diversions had been set up in the area to speed up the repairs.
Flooding in the Far North and Bay of Islands has left an estimated repair bill of between $50 and $80 million.
Civil defence and emergency agencies have estimated it would cost about $20 million for damage to the local roading network alone.
The one in 150-year event left a trail of destruction across rural and urban areas, Far North District Council spokesman Rick McCall said.
Preliminary assessments suggested as many as 3000 hectares of Far North farmland were affected by the floods.
About 2000 homes were without power or phone services during the peak of the flooding, but power had since been restored to all properties.
Mr McCall said costs were difficult to calculate until more detailed reports were available from individual sectors such as the farming community, utilities suppliers and the insurance industry.
Contractors have been working through the weekend to clear the remaining few roads still closed with slips and flood damage, including State Highway 11a between Opua and Kawakawa. This section of highway is only available to local residents, four-wheel-drives and commercial vehicles.
All local roads are now open, other than the bridge in the Stone Store Basin at Kerikeri. Contractors are still working on slip and flood repairs on the roads, so motorists could still face short delays.
Around 260 people required emergency accommodation on Thursday night after their vehicles were trapped by slips or flooding. Of this number, 62 were placed in emergency accommodation and 202 were temporarily accommodated at hotels and motels, Mr McCall said.
As many as 228 individual properties were flooded or damaged by the storm, including up to 50 business premises and 121 homes flooded and some 50 properties with structural damage.
There were still some problems with water supply and residents at Paihia, Haruru Falls, Waitangi, Opua and Kawakawa were being asked to boil drinking water until further notice.
Water quality was expected to be back to safe levels by Monday.
- NZPA
