Ōpononi-Ōmāpere residents asked to continue conserving water

Kaitāia, Paihia and Ōpononi residents are being praised for helping avoid emergency water restrictions after responding to a council plea yesterday to conserve supplies while infrastructure damaged during Tuesday’s heavy rain event was repaired.

The council issued a call at 10.30am on Wednesday (10 May) for households and businesses connected to impacted supplies to reduce their water use and conserve treated water stored in reservoirs.

Far North Waters Alliance, the council’s three waters provider, says there was a “noticeable drop” in demand from households and businesses connected to the three supplies after the plea was issued. They say reduced demand meant treated water stored in reservoirs did not fall below critical levels, allowing them to focus on completing repairs.

The storage reservoirs, which supply treated water directly to users, were depleted after the Kaitāia and Paihia water treatment plants were shut down when water intakes in the Waitangi and Awanui rivers were blocked by storm debris. These were cleared once river levels dropped and the plants are again operating normally.  

The Ōpononi-Ōmāpere storage reservoir was drained to under 45 per cent capacity by a leak in the network yesterday. That leak is yet to be located and Ōpononi-Ōmāpere residents and businesses are being asked to continue conserving water for the rest of today.

Far North Waters Alliance staff say the leak has been narrowed down to the Ōpononi end of the network but because the ground is already water-logged by recent rain, pinpointing the leak will be a challenge. They estimate that around five cubic metres of water – equivalent to about two garden hoses running – is being lost each hour. This is a significant proportion of the 18 cubic metres produced each hour by the relatively small Ōpononi-Ōmāpere water scheme.

Ōpononi residents are asked to contact the council immediately if they see large volumes of water seeping from the ground or hear any unusual water flows.