Water storage lake drained

If you’ve driven over Kaitoke Hill recently, you may have noticed that one of the two Te Marua water storage lakes has been completely drained.

“It may seem a bit odd that Greater Wellington has drained one of its storage lakes so soon after the region was threatened with a water shortage but the dry summer has actually provided a good opportunity to carry out maintenance on the lake,” says Andrew Samuel, Greater Wellington’s Water Marketing Analysis Manager.

“The north lake had been used extensively to maintain water supply during the long, dry summer, and very little water remained. However, now that the rain has come and our supply rivers and aquifer have plenty of water to meet the current demand, there's only a minimal risk by not having our full storage capacity available in the coming weeks.

“So we’ve taken the opportunity to drain the lake completely and carry out tasks that require an empty lake, such as inspecting the lake bed and structures.

This is the first time that the north lake has been drained in 20 years (the south storage lake was drained four years ago for the same purpose). The lake will remain empty for about a month.

The draining of the lake does not affect the normal operation of water supply for the region’s four cities. The south storage lake is 100 percent full.