Auckland's water network is just days away from getting a much-needed boost from the Waikato River.
A new treatment plant in Tuakau, just south of Auckland, will draw an additional 50 million litres of water a day.
That's equivalent to an eighth of what Aucklanders consume.
The infrastructure's been brought to life in just a year, as part of the response to last year's drought.
Watercare's head of infrastructure Steve Webster said, "This has been built in a stunningly fast time, 12 months - would normally be 3-4 years".
Programme manager Sven Harlos added, "We had 350 people onsite working, sometimes 24/7 to be able to make it happen."
It'll relieve pressure on the city's dams, which are still more than 20 per cent below historical levels.
Lower than normal rainfall in recent months hasn't helped, and there are also millions of litres of water lost in leaks every day.
"While it's been raining in central Auckland, we really haven't had a lot of rain in the Hunuas or the Waitakeres, so the rain has to fall in the right location," Webster said.
"While they're a fantastic source of water, we do need to diversify our water sources."
The additional water being extracted from the Waikato is just one method.
"There are other sources," Webster said. "We have bores as well, so that's another diversified water source, so we need to continue to do that.
"What that diversity does, it improves our resilience."
Watercare chief executive Jon Lamonte says the new Tuakau plant will provide a welcome safety net if the weather turns out to be drier than forecasters expect.
He says it's been on the agenda for more than a decade, but that the first stage was brought forward in response to the drought.
It cost $145 million, but that's just a drop in the bucket of the big $8.9 billion Watercare plans to spend in the next 10 years.
Part of that will go towards expanding the Tuakau operations further.
Lamonte said, “Our plan is to expand the plant in stages, timed to meet population growth, until it can ultimately treat up to 150 million litres a day. To put that into perspective, it’s significantly more water than we get from our five dams in the Waitākere Ranges combined.”
Webster said, "As Auckland grows.. it's growing rapidly, we planned for that.. and we look at what investment we need to meet that growth. In conjunction with that.. we have $11 billion worth of assets so we need to be continually renewing those assets".
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said, “By the end of this year, we would have boosted Auckland’s water supply by up to 106 million litres a day, which is a massive achievement.”
It does all come at a cost to Aucklanders. As of this month, prices have gone up 7 per cent.
The new plant will officially go live on Wednesday, once it's been connected to the existing pipeline leaving Tuakau.
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