Dargaville's reservoir is less than 10% full, according to the Kaipara District Council. Photo / Tania Whyte
Dargaville's reservoir is less than 10% full, according to the Kaipara District Council. Photo / Tania Whyte
Dargaville’s 5000 residents have been asked to conserve water and some streets in the town are completely without supply.
Residents are being told to fill containers from a centrally parked tanker.
The Kaipara District Council (KDC) told residents this morning that the town’s reservoir was less than 10% full.An initial leak discovered yesterday was repaired and a team had worked through the night to repair a main break in the raw water line at Mamaranui.
During those repairs, lines needed to be turned off, which meant less water flowed into the reservoir tanks and storage levels dropped as people continued to use the water.
Today there were a number of new issues, further significant breaks in the mainline due to pressure that repair crews, including some from Auckland, were continuing to address.
The reservoir levels continued to drop beyond demand.
A council spokeswoman said repairs would take time and then the line to the reservoir and the reservoir tanks themselves needed to recharge slowly to avoid pressure blowouts.
“We continue to truck water to the reservoir at the same time and will keep providing updates throughout today.
“We are at critical levels now and have had to turn off the booster pumps, which means residents in areas above the treatment plant will have no water, or severely reduced pressure,” she said.
Residents were asked to conserve water by holding off running dishwashers and doing laundry, not flushing the toilet, turning off running taps, and delaying showering.
Dargaville Residents and Ratepayers Association chairwoman Rose Dixon. Photo / Denise Piper
Schools in Dargaville have switched to onsite water tanks so they can continue to stay open today even if the municipal water supply runs dry.
Business owners were critical of poor communication from the KDC.
Apparelmaster Drycleaners owner-operator Corine Lord said a council spokesperson phoned her at 9.30am, which she believed was too late because the business starts work daily at 3.30am and had already completed most of its washing for the day.
“The damage was already done, so to speak,” Lord said.
In the two years she has owned the business, including during the drought earlier this year, this was the first time it had faced the prospect of potentially being unable to operate due to a water shortage.
Sixty 8 Cafe owner Alesha Thorn said people were frustrated about the town’s ongoing water issues, which have hurt businesses and shaken community confidence.
She criticised the council for poor communication that morning, which had left her guessing as to whether her business was at risk of being asked to close for the day. The lack of water also meant she could only operate it in a limited way, because it was impossible to cut corners with food hygiene and safety.
Thorn was also critical of what she described as a lack of infrastructure investment by the council. The repeated water problems had left residents uneasy and distrustful of the council’s ability to manage the situation. She believed public discussion was essential if the problem was ever going to be properly remedied.
Dargaville Residents and Ratepayers Association chairwoman Rose Dixon said the shortage reflected the dire state of the town’s infrastructure.
“We need government intervention to solve it, as the burden to ratepayers is just too high.
“We have a small ratepayer base to service the region and, as a result, our infrastructure upgrades and repairs are being neglected.”
She said the ratepayers’ association was hugely concerned about failing infrastructure in the district.
“This is exactly why investment by the council needs to be prioritised towards infrastructure and not golf courses – as per their economic development plan.”
“Council is not funding or prioritising golf courses,” the spokeswoman said.
Neither had it neglected key infrastructure; water infrastructure was a core service, she said.
The KDC agreed its ratepayer database was small, which constrained its ability to fund major infrastructure upgrades. However, that was typical of many councils in New Zealand.
“We do have renewal and replacement work planned, and a number of other upgrades in the works as set out in the Long Term Plan,” the spokeswoman said.
Water has been an ongoing issue in Dargaville. During the summer, the town and nearby Baylys Beach were placed under level-four water restrictions, the toughest available, as drought started to bite.
