Mayor blames water pipe woes on funding issues

WELLINGTON: The mayor of Wellington says he is seeking answers after a wastewater pipe broke and a burst water main created a massive geyser in the capital this week.

Andy Foster said the company managing wastewater and drinking water, Wellington Water, did not appear to have enough funding.

The council had been collecting money for repairs to the ageing water network, Mr Foster said. However, some of this had gone into other water projects, such as a new reservoir and sewage treatment plant, rather than being used for replacing antiquated pipes.

``The pipes are getting older and for one reason or another, Wellington Water has not been getting adequate funding to be able to do the work it needs to do,’’ he said.

``We will make sure we ringfence money for renewals so we are starting to get on top of this, rather than running to catch up.’’

On Thursday, a water main burst, sending water down central Wellington's Aro Valley.

On Monday, a broken wastewater pipe under the ground produced a foul stench near the Civic Square area of downtown Wellington.

Mr Foster said more money was also needed for an assessment of the condition of the ageing water network.

``When we started to have problems at the beginning of last year — very, very public problems — I moved very quickly to set up a mayoral task forcea and to put more money into the budget for a condition assessment.

``What became apparent is it was being done 10 years ago — in fact we were very insistent that it get done — and that's dropped off the radar screen.

``That means we don't know enough about the condition of the assets under the ground.''

Mr Foster acknowledged the council had been advised the sewage pipe that burst on Monday was a critical part of the infrastructure that needed to be replaced, but funding to fix it could not be accessed.

``This is not a conscious decision the council as an elected body has ever made. The council has never said ‘no' in my entire time in council to any investment request from Wellington Water.

``It's just sometimes these requests are not getting to the council — we might have a look at why that was,'' Mr Foster said.

He planned to meet staff from Wellington Water yesterday and to focus on plans for fixing pipes in the central business district, he said. — RNZ