Hope for Kaitaia as pipeline nears drought-hit town

A digger works on one of two pipelines aiming to bring water from the aquifer beneath Sweetwater to drought-hit Kaitaia within weeks. Photo / FNDC

Salvation could be on the way for drought-hit Kaitaia with a new pipeline from an iwi-owned bore due to reach the Far North town in two weeks' time.

The town's main water source, the Awanui River, has dropped to its lowest level since records began 50 years ago, and its backup supply of days gone by, Kauri Dam, is bedevilled by access issues and toxic algal blooms.

Work is now under way, however, to build a 4km pipeline from a bore on iwi-owned Sweetwater Farms directly to the council water treatment plant on Ōkahu Rd.

Far North Mayor John Carter said the water could start flowing in 14 days.

Water from the iwi-owned Sweetwater Farms bore will be piped directly to Kaitaia's water treatment plant on Ōkahu Rd. Photo / Peter Jackson

Sweetwater Farms, which consist of three separate dairy units, are jointly owned by Te Hiku iwi Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto and have an existing consent to tap into the Aupōuri aquifer.

"We are grateful to Te Rarawa and Ngāi Takoto for helping us to find a solution to the water shortage and for the awhi (support) they have shown for the people of Kaitaia. This is an example of the collaboration we would like to do more of in the future," Carter said.

Te Rarawa chairman Haami Piripi said the offer was driven not by economics but by community need.

''We're doing our bit. We have always risen to community need, right from the start, donating land for the hospital, police station and roads. We have a track record of giving up things for the good of the people. This is another expression of it in contemporary terms.''

The council would pay the same price for water as it charged others. The plan was a partnership between the council, Civil Defence and iwi.

It would use up part of the farm's consented water allocation, but the iwi had already planned for reduced water use and invested in an irrigation scheme which allowed careful monitoring and management.

The proposal was unlikely to have got off the ground without the water crisis, which had been ''the mother of invention''.

Meanwhile, a leaked council report shows Te Rarawa made similar offers in the past, most recently in 2014.

Council reports were prepared, a pipeline route was mooted and options presented, but nothing happened.

Piripi said the previous council had been pursuing a different plan to tap into the aquifer with a private entrepreneur.

When that plan fell over he believed the council felt it had gone too far down that track, and invested too much money, to go back.

''The will died away and the issue became a bit tainted. No one wanted to be associated with any part of it. It didn't really worry us. It was a genuine offer but we suspected it wouldn't be taken up. We knew the people we were dealing with and the sort of arrangement they would prefer.''

A second pipeline project is also under way to ease Kaitaia's water crisis.

That project will see water piped from the privately-owned bore, consented in 2012 but never used, to a mobile treatment station on Bird Rd, Awanui. It is expected to be complete in two to three weeks.

That water will be used to fill tankers supplying rural areas to take pressure off the town supply.

Kaitaia is currently subject to level 4 restrictions which means water may be used only for essential cooking, drinking and hygiene. Other areas with level 4 restrictions are Kaikohe, Ōmanaia/Rawene, Waitangi/Paihia/Ōpua, Kawakawa/Moerewa and everywhere in the Kaipara.

If anything Kaikohe's situation is even more dire than Kaitaia's because the town's only alternative supply is Lake Ōmapere.

The government's Provincial Growth Fund has released $2 million to pay for pipelines from Sweetwater and Lake Ōmapere with the balance to be paid by the council.