For close to four decades now there's been one vital cog in Whanganui's wastewater treatment system that has beavered away sight unseen.
That's probably because much of the workings of the Beach Rd pumping station are 3 stories underground and not the sort of utility the public would be flocking to see even if they could.
But the four electric pumps - along with a fifth that's on standby - have been pumping waste collected in the hundreds of kilometres of sewerage pipes criss-crossing the city into the treatment plant on Airport Rd.
The fact the plant has been mothballed and is undergoing a multi-million dollar makeover after the original system failed, has been well catalogued.
But even though the plant was decommissioned, those Beach Rd pumps haven't stopped.