The slip on Howard Rd in Lower Hutt. Photo / Nick James
The slip on Howard Rd in Lower Hutt. Photo / Nick James
Hutt City’s mayor says there will be a “detailed report” into a slip that cut water to more than a hundred homes, after residents say they complained about a water leak at Christmas.
Campbell Barry told the Herald on Thursday morning he hoped to have water restored to all but a handful of the 165 affected properties before 1pm.
“A handful of those will still not have water – but we’re talking single digits.”
He said all but two properties, one of which was vacant, would have water back.
Hutt City Council said residents should continue to boil their water, and the road access was still blocked off for vehicles.
The slip on Howard Rd on Tuesday took out a swathe of the hillside, damaging a gas line, taking out powerlines and disrupting the water supply to 165 properties.
Road access, power, water and gas were all damaged.
Richard and Heather Armishaw told NZME water started to flow across their property around Christmas time and initially, it was no big deal. By January, the trickle was approaching a torrent.
“It was certainly making quite a rushing sound as it rushed down the gully,” he said.
Barry said the council and Wellington Water was aware of reports of leaks on the road in January and earlier – but he could not confirm the action that was taken, or whether improvements were needed to the service.
“We are in an information gathering state – once we have all that information we can share that with the residents, and the public, but I want to have a really thorough look and get a detailed report.”
He said he did not want to jump to conclusions without all of the information at hand.
Richard Armishaw called the council regularly, saying every time the water got worse, he would ring them again.
Heather said the council and Wellington Water were challenging to get hold of and while the messages were acknowledged, little action was taken.
She said workers took photographs and videos – and at one point drew “a big blue cross” on the road – but nothing was actually fixed.
“We expected something to be done right away – our next door neighbour who was an engineer called the council and said if something isn’t done, this will slip and it will take out utilities and that’s exactly what happened,” Richard said.
The slip on Howard Rd. Photo / Supplied
The Armistices told NZME they felt Wellington Water and the council were “asleep at the wheel”.
“We know they have an enormous problem and they’re fixing a hundred leaks a week and boasting about it but the fact I many of those may be ones are visible so they probably think it’s better for PR to fix those but water running out a steep bank will just be a disaster sooner or later and that’s what’s happened,” said Richard.
“We have been telling them for three months, they didn’t take any notice to the extent that they didn’t do anything bar the blue cross, until it actually slipped,” Heather said.
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Barry said it was crucial he had all the information at hand before drawing any conclusions on whether there had been a failure.
“It’s important for us to reflect on what’s actually happened, who did what,” he said.
He did not have a timeline for when this investigation would culminate, but said he was meeting with officials later today to begin the process.
He said the immediate focus was restoring water and access to Howard Rd.
Barry also thanked the residents of Point Howard for their work saying the response from the local community had been “outstanding.
“It’s been a bit of an unwelcome test, but the Point Howard Resident’s Association has been amazing, going door to door and making sure everyone is cared for.”
Wellington Water was approached for comment by the Herald, but declined, saying the Hutt City Council was the lead agency on the slip.
