Waiaroha water storage and education centre opens next month

Hastings’ new Waiaroha drinking water treatment and storage facility and discovery centre will be open to the public next month.

On the corner of Southampton and Hastings Sts near the CBD, the centre will reveal not only the inner workings of how safe water is delivered to households, but highlight the wider story of the importance of water to every aspect of our lives.

It is the last-to-be-completed major element of Hastings District Council’s Drinking Water Strategy, a council commitment to making safe drinking water its top priority after the 2016 Havelock North water and health crisis.

As well as Waiaroha, projects in the strategy include the large storage and treatment facility in Frimley Park, a booster pump in Havelock North, a new 5km pipeline between Hastings and Havelock North, and the upgrade of seven small community treatment and storage facilities.

Waiaroha is a water storage facility and education centre for Hastings. Photo / Hastings District Council

Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said while the primary focus of the improved water facilities is to ensure Hastings’ drinking water is safe, Waiaroha enables people to understand the water cycle, from mountains to aquifer to sea, how it is treated, used and disposed of, and potentially inspire future water engineers who would come up with new and better ways to protect and manage water.

“Waiaroha and the wider drinking water project arose from a terrible event that caused many to become very ill, and some families to lose loved ones,” she said. “We learnt that we had to be more vigilant about caring for our water — that we needed to invest in it, to protect it and to better understand and appreciate it for the precious resource that it is.”

The facility and surrounds will be officially blessed and opened on October 6, followed by community open days on October 7-8.