Waterless Sunday in Howick after mains valve fails

Howick residents filling up from a water truck didn't have supplies at home to cope after the valve failure. Photo / Natalie Slade

Water supply to Howick and Bucklands Beach areas should be back to normal today after a valve failure caused a two-metre fountain and the need for a supplier to truck water in.

More than 1000 residents woke to poor pressure or no water at all yesterday after the failure at the corner of Botany and Cascades Rds.

Michael Lam said it wasn't good waiting for four hours trying to get through to retailer Manukau Water to find out when the problem would be fixed.

Others, such as flatmates Tracy Blanchard and Kerrie Parker, who filled up containers for drinking water, said although having to go and collect water was a "little" Third World, it wasn't a big deal and most understood that events like this happened from time to time.

Manukau Water Chief executive Raveen Jaduram said a resident reported the breakage, which resulted in a two-metre high fountain gushing out of the mains because of the pressure.

He said he apologised unreservedly to those affected and for the length of time people had to wait to find out what the problem was.

"It is one of those incidents where the sheer number of incidents all probably calling around the same time - they must have found it very frustrating. The number caught us offguard, we apologise."

The valve was fixed by 4.30pm, however it took time for the pipes to be refilled. That had to be completed slowly so that households did not have water quality issues from stirred up sediment.

Although it wasn't an "excuse", Mr Jaduram said the event was good in one way because it showed that many families didn't have enough water supply in case of a civil emergency.

He hoped people would now make sure they had emergency water bottles.

The waterline affected runs through Howick College, the corner of Bradbury Rd and Union Rd, Picton St carpark, Highland Park shops, Macleans College, Macleans Primary School, and the Meadowland Shopping Centre.

Trucks at eight sites in the suburb supplied residents throughout the day.