Residents in Wellington’s CBD are being asked to only flush their toilets when “essential” as work continues to fix a major wastewater pipe that burst.
Wellington Water has asked residents in central Wellington and Te Aro to minimise wastewater usage after a pipe on the corner of Mercer and Victoria streets ruptured yesterday afternoon.
The repair is expected to take two to three days.
“This means essential flushing only within homes,” Wellington Water tweeted.
People are also asked to use their outside drains minimally.
All of Mercer Street, Victoria Street past the Harris Street intersection, and Jervois Quay onto Harris Street remain closed to commuters.
Wellington Water said its “sucker trucks” were keeping up with demand.
“There has been no overflow or discharge into the harbour.
“There are additional sucker trucks on site to help with peak demand to prevent overflows into the harbour.”
Yesterday’s burst wastewater pipe is the latest in a string of similar incidents in Wellington. In December 2019, in one of the more disruptive instances for the city, a Willis Street pipe failure sent wastewater into the harbour and took months to repair.
A report for the Wellington City Council last year concluded the capital’s water infrastructure is in poor state. It found 30 per cent of Wellington’s drinking water assets and 20 per cent of its wastewater networks are past their use-by dates.
The report estimated about 50 to 60 per cent of the city’s pipe infrastructure would need a replacement in the next 30 years.
“As these assets age they are becoming increasingly prone to failure. These leaks, bursts and breaks are absorbing an increasing amount of available funding,” the report said.
Water New Zealand analysis found Wellington's pipes are, on average, 51 years old. It's the oldest of any city in the country.
Some residents and businesses are still being asked to avoid flushing their toilets.
Wellington Mayor Andy Foster acknowledged yesterday's pipe failure was another instance of the city's ageing infrastructure.
“We’re always very sorry when anything breaks. We don’t like it breaking.”
He said an assessment into the condition of Wellington's pipes was ongoing, then "sufficient funding" would be allocated to replacing or expanding pipes to meet future demand as the city's population grows.
He said the funding would reach hundreds of millions of dollars.
Foster said he didn't know how many water or wastewater pipes had burst in Wellington in the past year.
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