Heavy rainfall causes localised wastewater flooding

Unusually high levels of rainfall in the past 48 hours which have been exacerbated by an intense storm overnight have caused significant volumes of water to enter Hamilton’s storm and wastewater network today. Hamilton received 26 mm of rain in the last 12 hours.

Water & Waste Services manager Shaun Hodson says that overall the system is coping well within its designed limits, however due to exceptionally high and concentrated rainfall, combined with saturated ground conditions, there have been a number of localised flooding events.

“Council has deployed targeted teams to systematically check pressure points and mitigate any existing or anticipated issues. These issues tend to manifest themselves at manholes and pumping stations during extreme conditions such as those we have seen today.”

Rainfall is expected to gradually dissipate over the next 48 hours. Constant Council monitoring and a gradual reduction of water entering the network is expected to see the situation resolve quickly.

Teams are systematically sweeping the entire city for overflow events, however if members of the public see a sudden and new overflow build up they can report it to Council on 838 6699.