Rāwene supplies hit by burst water main

**UPDATE as of 4.30pm**

Normal water supplies should now be returning to Rāwene customers. Those in elevated parts of the community may not get full water pressure until later this evening. Full water pressure should return for all customers once the Rāwene storage reservoir has refilled overnight. Please help us get the reservoir fully restored by using water sparingly tonight.

If you still have no water by 8pm, please report this to our contact centre on 0800 920 029 or lodge an RFS online. Emergency water tankers will remain in place at Russell Esplanade and outside the ambulance station until 9pm tonight. 

Some customers may see water discolouration when supplies first resume, however, the water will be safe to drink. 

Thank you for your patience while we worked to restore water supplies today. 

________________________________________________

The water main has now been repaired. The network will begin receiving water again, with low-lying parts of Rāwene seeing a return of water pressure sooner. When water does begin flowing again, there may be some discolouration,  but it is safe to drink. Water supplies should return to normal by late today. 

________________________________________________________

The Rāwene township will be without water for much of today (Friday 12 May) after a burst watermain completely drained the town’s storage reservoir overnight.

Far North Waters Alliance, the council’s three waters provider, has located the broken pipe and a fix should be completed this morning. However, it will take several hours to refill the reservoir adequately for supplies to be restored to normal.

Two water tankers will be on site this morning at either end of Rāwene providing free emergency drinking water for residents and businesses. Residents are advised to bring their own clean water containers to fill. One tanker will be located near the ferry terminal at Russell Esplanade and the other will be outside the ambulance station at De Thierry Street.

Rāwene Primary School has been informed of the outage. Ōmanaia residents are not impacted. We apologise for this inconvenience.