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Published 13/12/2024

Key drinking water infrastructure upgrade significantly reduces risk of short-term water shortages and tighter water restrictions

A key upgrade to the region’s critical water infrastructure has been delivered ahead of schedule and is already having a positive effect on the region’s water supply. 
 
“The Te Mārua Water Treatment Plant is a critical piece of the region’s water supply as it provides around 45% of the region’s drinking water,” says Greater Wellington councillor and Te Awa Kairangi Subcommitee chair Ros Connelly, whose council fund and own the region’s water treatment plants.  
 
“The first of two stages of recent upgrades completed by Wellington Water mean the plant is now able to treat and supply an additional 20 million litres of drinking water per day. 
 
“This milestone is great news and an important step towards increasing Wellington’s water supply resilience, especially as the region enters summer, when we experience tighter water restrictions.” 
 
Wellington Water Board Chair Nick Leggett says Greater Wellington brought forward their investment into the upgrades following last year’s heightened risk of an acute water shortage and tighter restrictions. 
 
“Greater Wellington took action when it was needed, and this has enabled the team to work tirelessly to deliver this vital project ahead of schedule,” says Nick.  
 
“With the additional supply from Te Mārua now online, the risk of tighter water restrictions has significantly dropped – for this year. This gives the region some short-term cover with its drinking supply, but it is not even a medium-term safety blanket. We must crank up renewals of pipes to reduce water loss, meter and charge for our water and plan and build more water storage.” 
 
Latest modelling from Wellington Water shows that, combined with the work done by residents to reduce their use and work to drive down leaks, the risk of tighter water restrictions has reduced materially: 
  • The risk of Water Restriction Level 2 has dropped from 100% last summer to 5% this summer. 
  • The risk of Water Restriction Level 3 has dropped from 70% last summer to 1% this summer. 
  • The risk of Water Restriction Level 4 has dropped from 33% last summer to under 1% this summer. 
 
However, this comes with a caution to residents to not take their eyes off the work still needed to secure a resilient supply of water for years to come. 
 
“The capacity upgrade is a positive step forward, but it’s not a silver bullet,” adds Ros.  
 
“The additional capacity enables Wellington Water to supply more water each day, but this in turn draws more from the Macaskill Lakes, which are filled by Te Awa Kairangi/Hutt River. While it reduces the risk of tighter water restrictions, ultimately our water still comes from the awa. Hot, dry weather reduces the capacity of the river, so we do not want to be taking more water than is absolutely necessary.   
 
“There’s still more work to do,” adds Nick. “We know that tipping more water into an aging system isn’t what’s best for our environment, nor is it cost effective for our councils or communities. 
 
“While this work brings us some reprieve for this summer, we can’t take our foot off the pedal.  We’ve significantly reduced the backlog of leaks, but we need ongoing commitments to fund reactive leak patching from councils, otherwise we will see leak numbers grow quickly again. Without this, and more importantly those pipe renewals, we will eat into the additional 20MLD of water supply from Te Mārua and see ourselves in a similar risk situation in just a few years’ time.” 
 
Residents are encouraged to find small and simple ways to continue to reduce water use and keep an eye on their wai. Whether you’re doing it for our rivers, our community or to keep your hot water bill down, every choice counts – and can really make a difference. From pushing the half flush on the toilet, to hopping out of the shower a few minutes earlier – these choices can save litres of water at a time, and that adds up. 
 
With leaks on private property now outnumbering leaks on the public network (461 private leaks vs 387 public leaks as of 7 November 2024), finding and fixing leaks on your property is also an important measure people can take to do their bit and keep an eye on their wai.  
 
For more water saving tips head to Wellington Water’s website – www.wellingtonwater.co.nz  
 

Editor notes

Wellington Water is owned and fully funded by Wellington City Council, Hutt City Council, Porirua City Council, and Upper Hutt City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council and South Wairarapa District Council. All six councils are equal shareholders.

Our councils own the water infrastructure in the region, and they task us to manage the infrastructure and deliver water services to our communities.

Wellington Water is governed by a Board of Directors. The Board and our organisation receive overall leadership and direction from the Wellington Water Committee, which are also responsible for appointing members to the Board.

The Wellington Water Committee is made up of representatives from our council owners and mana whenua.

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