Funds to repair leaks are expected to dry up as part of a plan to prevent Wellington from running out of water this summer

This time, local authorities are on high alert.

The country's water regulator and Wellington Water have agreed a target of reducing water loss by seven million liters of drinking water per day by summer to avoid severe restrictions.

Wellington Water manages water resources on behalf of its shareholder councils – Hutt, Porirua, Upper Hutt and Wellington City Councils, South Wairarapa District Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council.

The water utility says it is focused on keeping water in the pipes, reducing water use and increasing supplies to address the water shortage issue.

Money for leaks is expected to run out

Towards the end of last year, the region experienced its highest network leaks in many years. Since then, municipalities have put more money into finding and fixing leaks, and Wellington Water has reported positive progress.

In January, there was a backlog of 1,720 leaks on the public network, which has reduced to 509 over the last month – which is less than the backlog of 605 leaks on the private network.

Charles Barker, Wellington Water's director of regulatory services, noted that the number of private leaks in most communities now exceeds the number of leaks on the public network.

“With advances in public leaks and a significant increase in private leaks, we will also be looking to encourage residents to find leaks on their properties and fix them as quickly as possible.”

Wellington Water fixed a total of 7007 leaks across public and private networks in the first half of this year.

However, Wellington Water has reported that Porirua City Council's leakage funding is expected to run out in April and Upper Hutt City Council's at the end of January – just as the region enters the critical summer risk period.

Barker said the water company was working on additional funding recommendations for these councils to ensure leak repairs could continue expeditiously for the remainder of the financial year.

“Without this, we expect the backlog of leaks to increase again in the second half of the financial year.

“That would mean that we could not guarantee that water demand would decrease [seven million litres daily] can be maintained beyond February 2025. If the backlog of leaks increased, we would eat up the reduction achieved.”

Porirua City Council infrastructure general manager Mike Mendonça said if there was a need for more money, the council would discuss this with Wellington Water and reallocate the funds if necessary.

He noted the backlog had been reduced from 240 leaks in March to just 32, without Wellington Water accessing $792,000 worth of emergency funding.

“For underground facilities, there is often uncertainty about the nature and location of a leak, and the cost may be difficult to accurately estimate,” said Mendonça.

Gunther Wild, Upper Hutt City Council's acting director of asset management and operations, said the council had allocated the amount of money for leaks that Wellington Water had previously requested.

“Wellington Water has called for repairs to be accelerated and this is depleting the budget faster than forecast. If repairs continue at this pace, it is expected that funding could be exhausted before the end of the financial year.”

Efforts to date have halved the backlog of leaks in Upper Hutt.

The city council was aware of the need to find the right balance between repairing leaks or “placing band-aids” and investing in pipe replacements, Wild said.

“Upper Hutt City Council will respond to quantifiable needs as they arise, as continually seeking additional funding for short-term solutions without assurance that long-term outcomes will be achieved at value for money is not a responsible use of funds is the ratepayer.”

Pipe replacements are far from necessary

Wellington Water has told councils the region needs to replace 100km of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater pipes every year.

Barker said only 9km of pipes are expected to be replaced this financial year, based on council funding.

“Without increased and sustained investment in renewals, the condition of the asset base will deteriorate and further investment will be required to repair leaks and burst pipes, becoming an increasingly inefficient method of managing the network and controlling water losses.”

The Herald previously reported that only 18 km of pipes were replaced in the 2022/23 financial year.

At the time, Porirua mayor Anita Baker said councils were “at the limit” and were spending everything they could while dealing with already high interest rate increases.

The Coalition Government has announced its alternative plan for Three Waters, which will allow new council-owned water companies to access cheaper loans from the Local Government Funding Agency.

These Council Controlled Organizations (CCOs) can borrow up to five times their revenue from water charges.

Councils in the region are still working on it.

Reducing water consumption is crucial to avoid severe restrictions

Barker said Wellington Water installed three valves in the suburbs of Brooklyn, Johnsonville and Melrose to reduce water pressure.

“Lowering the pressure in the system reduces the flow of water through the pipes and reduces the number of new leaks. It also extends the life of the pipes behind the valves.”

Model calculations show that this has saved 300,000 liters per day and the number of new leaks is expected to fall by up to 40 per year.

Wellington city councilors have also agreed to fund a shared business model for residential water meters.

Wellington Water chairman Campbell Barry said Hutt City Council had funded its share of the business case, approved water meters and would begin rolling them out next financial year.

Porirua City Council was in a similar position, he said.

Wellington City Council allocated money to install water meters in the later years of its long-term plan, Barry said. That means the plan is up for debate and will be reconsidered by a new council before physical installation of water meters begins.

Upper Hutt was only funding its part of the business model, Barry said.

Barry described the consensus as a somewhat mixed picture.

“We are much further along with water meters than ever before, which is a positive step and two of the four councils introducing them will make a real difference.”

Kāpiti Coast District Council introduced water meters in 2014.

Within 18 months of their introduction, 443 leaks were discovered and 97% of them resolved, resulting in a 90% reduction in water consumption.

However, this step came at the highest cost for lawyer and mayor Jenny Rowan, which she ultimately paid for with her job.

Additional water supply expected by the end of January

Work is currently underway to increase the capacity of the Te Mārua Water Treatment Plant from approximately 80 million to 85 million liters per day to approximately 120 million liters per day.

Barker said this work would be carried out in phases and was on track to inject 20 million liters of additional supply into the network by the end of January 2025.

There are also plans for additional storage lakes to supply the power plant, he said.

“This additional storage will allow us to capture and store more water when it is abundant during the winter months, providing an important source of water for the region during the summer months when river levels fall.”

The water regulator is ready to intervene if necessary

The Taumata Arowai Water Authority will actively monitor the efforts of Wellington Water and its community owners to reduce the likelihood of acute water shortages this summer.

Steve Taylor, head of the regulator, said the agency was prepared to intervene if necessary.

“Looking at progress to date on Wellington Water's plan, our monitoring shows that at this stage Wellington Water and its owners' councils appear to be on track to meet their target of reducing water loss by 7% by summer. Reduce drinking water by 4 million liters per day. ”

However, Taylor warned that cities will likely still see moderate water restrictions.

“During the drier summer months, restrictions are often introduced across the country to ensure people continue to have enough water for their basic drinking and hygiene needs. It will continue to be important for the communities of Wellington, Hutt Valley and Porirua to continue to use water responsibly and comply with all restrictions.”

Wellington has already introduced Level 1 water restrictions, meaning sprinklers can only be used every other day.

Sprinklers and irrigation are banned in Level 2 and people should only water their gardens by hand.

In Stage 3, all outdoor water use in residential areas will cease.

Level 4 means there is a significant water shortage and people also need to reduce water use indoors, for example by taking two-minute showers and limiting laundry to one load per person per week.

Georgina Campbell is a Wellington-based reporter with a particular interest in local government, transport and seismic issues. She agreed Herald in 2019 after working as a broadcast journalist.