Rangitīkei District Council has allocated $11 million to the Marton Water Supply Strategy.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Rangitīkei District Council has allocated $11 million to the Marton Water Supply Strategy.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Rangitīkei District Council is investing $11 million to fix Marton's water problems.
As part of the 2021-2031 Long-Term Plan, the council has implemented the Marton Water Supply Strategy, an $11 million commitment to improving the quality of drinking water for Marton.
For many years, residents in Marton have had issueswith their drinking water, including discolouration, unpleasant smell and bad taste.
Rangitīkei mayor Andy Watson said it was a significant commitment and something that had needed to be done for a while.
"Some people will say why are we doing this now when the Three Water entities are likely to kick in," Watson said.
"First of all, we need to do it. We need to improve the supply and we don't want to be on a long waiting list of councils all approaching the entity for help. So it makes sense to continue with this work now."
Watson said if Three Waters reforms went ahead, the loans being taken out to fund the projects would be reimbursed.
"It has been an issue for a number of years, and in fact decades. We rely on groundwater dams as the water source for the town. That comes with a number of disadvantages in terms of variable water you are trying to treat."
Rangitīkei Mayor Andy Watson said now was the right time for the investment.
Photo / Bevan Conley
During the dry summer months, water levels at Marton's two dams drop.
When it rains heavily in the summer months, it adds a large volume of raw water from the catchment to the dams in a short period of time. This affects the raw water that must be treated to produce Marton's drinking water.
Raw water is water that enters the dam before any treatment process has taken place.
"The treatment plant can produce safe drinking water under these conditions but cannot remove all of the odour and taste that comes from the dams," Watson said.
In recent years, the council has been mixing dam water with the Tutaenui Bore water from an underground source, so the water being treated is better quality to start with.
"We will also be looking to put in a second bore. That will mean we have a more stable water source we are treating."
Work is set to begin to find another water supply to replace the dams that currently supply water to the town. Photo / Bevan Conley
The new water source won't be affected by the same issues as the Marton dams. The council plans to find the new water source and begin construction of the new bore this year.
There are also plans to build a new water treatment plant in Marton that would be designed to deal with the water from the new bore.
The design for the treatment plant is expected to start this year, with building to begin in the second half of 2023 and be completed by the middle of 2024.
The current treatment plant will continue to be used.
"It's not as if we have been doing nothing for the past few years. We have spent quite a bit of money rebuilding parts of the treatment plant, especially the structure they are held within.
"We have also put in much greater storage capacity. That money is not wasted."
Another focus of the Marton Water Supply Strategy is investigating water leaks in supply pipes and how to fix them. Water consumption for the town is higher per capita than it should be.
"It is a concern and it has been for a while. Our water usage is higher than we expect. There are some other reasons for that. But principally, we can't escape the fact that we lose water out of our lines."
There is a water filter system at the Marton RSA and Citizens' Memorial Hall to help remove some of the unpleasant taste and odour, so residents are able to fill their own clean drinking water containers with filtered water.
