Ruapehu District Council offers $200 per household to fix dripping taps

Ohakune's water network loses an unusual amount of water through leaks. Photo / Bevan Conley

Ohakune's dripping taps and leaking pipes must be fixed to prevent the loss of 720 cubic metres of potential drinking water every day.

That's prompted Ruapehu District Council's offer to pay $200 per household toward plumbing work in a campaign targeting the unusually high water loss from Ohakune's reticulated network, environmental manager Stuart Watson said.

Watson has advised people to take up the council's offer fast, by calling the council or dropping into its Ohakune office.

"The total budget for the plumbing offer is capped at $20,000, or 100 jobs, on a first-come, first-served basis, so we encourage people to hunt out those leaks and drips
and give us a call."

The offer is part of a larger leak-reduction programme undertaken with water contractor Veolia. The campaign includes collecting better data and working with commercial users to find and fix leaks.

Measures taken by households would be critically important to its success, Watson said.

"By paying for up to $200 of plumbing work we hope to remove any financial barriers people may have to fixing their dripping taps and showerheads, leaky toilets and pipes."

Measurements taken in the dead of night when water use is low have shown 30,000 litres (30 cubic metres per hour) are lost on a typical night - and 720 cubic metres across a typical day.

"This is equivalent to emptying out and then refilling the main Ohakune swimming
pool two-and-a-half times every single day," Watson said.

Limiting water loss will help Ohakune meet future water needs and avoid the disruption caused by precautionary boil water notices.

Over the two previous mid-winter school holidays the council had to issue boil water notices because it could not supply water that met drinking water standards. It becomes especially difficult when high rainfall makes streams turbid.

Reducing the leakage to 10,000 litres per hour (10 cubic metres) would help avoid boil water notices, keep the council within its water take resource consent limits, and give the Ohakune water treatment plant the ability to service growth in new housing.

Watson would also like Ohakune people to save water wherever they can. Saving did not have to make a significant impact on daily life, he said. There were lots of tips about it on the council website, and elsewhere online.