Council on target to minimise dirty water

The City Council is making positive progress in its comprehensive plans to minimise discoloured water throughout the city.

The Council in 2006 approved a $20 million eight year plan to replace cast iron and steel pipes which deposit rust into the water system resulting in complaints of dirty water.

The Council at the time also debated whether to accelerate the process to four years however it realised the implications of major disruption to city streets, the capacity of Council staff to resource the work, the cost to ratepayers and the impact on other Council projects such as resealing.

The project involves replacing 31 kilometres of cast iron pipe up to 100 years old and steel pipes up to 60 years of age.

It also included a commitment to flush weekly and, in some cases, daily all streets where residents have experienced dirty water.

In the 18 months since the plan was approved the Council has;

Replaced five kilometres (or nearly a sixth) of the 31 kilometres of cast iron pipe
Completed the physical work at the Manawatu Bridge to allow swabbing the trunk main from Turitea to the Square
Progressed the first section of the new pipe between Fitzherbert Avenue and Takaro to near completion this year
Approved design work for further trunk main replacement between Fitzherbert Avenue and the Te Awe Awe/Albert Street intersection with a planned route of along the riverbank. This will allow the 1930 cast iron pipes along Te Awe Awe Street to be replaced without major disruption.

Water and Waste Services Manager, Chris Pepper, points out that the 10 Year Plan includes a performance measure to progressively evaluate the success of the programme implemented.

The latest figures show that 31 complaints were received last month compared to 35 for January 2007 and 86 for January 2006.

“It’s important to realise that the extremely dry season experienced this year has significantly increased water demand which has the effect of increasing velocities in the network and therefore sediment in the pipes,” Chris says.

This was highlighted in a recent complaint about discoloured water in the Hokowhitu area. A flushing programme has subsequently been carried out and the Council is weekly monitoring the situation.

“While the eight year programme will minimise the incidents there will be occasions when discoloured water will occur. What we’ve set out to achieve is to reduce the number of complaints,” Chris explains.

“Where there are sporadic incidents, we request that people run their taps for 10 to 15 minutes and, if the water doesn’t clear by then, contact our Customer Service Centre on 356-8199. By doing so we can direct the flushing programme to the problem areas.”

Chris Pepper emphasises the water is regularly tested and is safe to drink.