Kaingaroa Village struggling to shower at home and flush toilets

Double H2go truck refills Kaingaroa's water supply on Tuesday afternoon. Photo / Supplied.

Kaingaroa Village has been without water since Monday after its main water bore stopped working - and a fix is not expected until Friday.

The bore’s pumps failed on Sunday and the bore stopped working at 4am on Monday, leaving many of the village’s 450 residents without clean running water. A new bore is expected to be installed on Friday and, until then, water is being trucked in from Taupō.

This has meant affected residents have been unable to shower at home and are manually flushing their toilets.

Kaingaroa Forest Village Council Incorporated councillor Mary-Anne Martin said the bore’s “breakdown” was caused by “deterioration” from age.

The village council governs the Kaingaroa Papakāinga Trust, which owns village assets such as its houses, shops, workshops, school, kōhanga reo and marae.

Martin said a Facebook post informing residents of the water problem was added to the village’s community page on Monday.

Martin said the village council -Kaingaroa Forest Village Council Incorporated - was prepared for problems with the town’s main water pipe, such as a tree falling on it, “but what we weren’t prepared for was our pumps to fail”, Martin said.

“This was the backup plan,” Martin said.

The bore was 40 years old and had received maintenance, Martin said.

It was expected to be fixed by Friday, she said. The village council had set up an ablution block in town.

Fire chief and village councillor Kenneth Austin had been keeping the village residents updated via social media.

On Tuesday afternoon Austin informed residents that the village council would turn the water supply back on for three hours to allow residents to shower, wash their dishes, and fill up their water containers again.

He said more than 273,000 litres of drinking water had been trucked into Kaingaroa by Taupō-based company Double H2Go as of Monday.

“Civil Defence recommendations are that every household has at least two to three days’ supply of drinking water available and to have what they call grey water available, like a drum or something from off the roof for rainwater so that they can tip a bucket down the toilet,” Austin said.

“A toilet will use between three litres for a half flush, and a full flush is about 6.5 litres or so.”

Both village councillors said the residents needed to band together to look after each other like they all did during the Covid lockdown periods.

“We can come together in this situation and help one another and that’s what it’s all about. Especially our old people and those families with young babies,” Martin said.

Double H2Go refills water at the Kaingaroa Forest water treatment plant on Tuesday afternoon. Photo/ Supplied.

Paying for the replacement

Austin said the village as it is today was established in about 1988 and its governing council has seven elected members, all of whom live in the village.

“We do the best we can with the resources we have at hand and the finances we have at hand.”

He estimated the new water pump wouldcost $16,000 and said it would be paid for by the village council.

“And then you’ve got to install it so that’s another $6000 to $7000.”

Austin said the village fell under a “low socio-economic” category. “Due to the current financial situation of the village, approximately 50% of the community are unable to pay the levies, hence the financial restraints that the community has.”

In the past 15 to 20 years, the government had come back to the town with support, he said.

“We’ve had approximately $16 million invested into the community already through various projects. There was a water reticulation project, housing project, partial infrastructure [support], roading, and a new building project.”

“We’ve got our own oxidation ponds,” Austin said.

“We do need a new sewerage complex built, you’re looking in excess [of about] $8 million to $10m.”

Austin said the village paid rates to Rotorua Lakes Council but it had to take care of its own water, rubbish, and sewerage.

Kaingaroa Forest Village's water pump was last repaired in 2017. Photo / Supplied.