'Water cut' at BNZ Tower hits business

Metrowater had not reconnnected the main water pipeline at BNZ Tower after a planned shutdown on Thursday. Picture / Martin Sykes

The Bank of New Zealand tower in central Auckland was without water for several hours yesterday morning after the main water pipe was not reconnected following a planned shutdown on Thursday night.

The outage affected more than 200 office workers and others at shops and the food court in the building.

Lance and Shirley Taylor, who arrived at their coffee shop business just after 5am, telephoned Metrowater about 30 minutes later about the problem.

But it took the Auckland City Council water company until 11.20 to reconnect their water.

Mr Taylor said Metrowater reconnected the building with a 25mm temporary pipe that provided only a trickle to his business and still meant he had to fetch water from another building.
A sushi bar also experienced difficulties but fortunately for a hairdressing business, it had no appointments before the water was reconnected.

The Taylors said they would seek compensation for lost business.

But a Metrowater spokeswoman said the company did not pay compensation for outages.