Water woes the immediate focus – or not?

By Councillor Aidan Ellims

Over January we have experienced a summer which we haven’t had for a number of years, with high temperatures and no rain, resulting in water restrictions being imposed in our communities.

We are facing water restrictions due to environmental conditions, lack of rainfall, lower levels of the underground aquifers that the water supply bores access, low levels of our water reservoir’s at times and of course the leaks that we have in our pipe networks.

With the water restrictions being imposed by Wellington Water and Council, there was lots of commentary around this and the number of water leaks. It is crucial that we take heed of the water restrictions as the consequences are huge if we use all the water stored in the reservoir and the bore/pumps can’t keep up with the demand. We face not having enough pressure in the network for the Fire Brigade if they need water in an emergency or struggling to cope with events such as Cruise Martinborough or the Fairs when we have a large influx of visitors to town.

Due to resources and funding, Wellington Water isn’t able to repair every leak immediately, so they prioritise the leaks which means that some will be fixed ahead of others. The link below will take you to the Wellington Water Job Status map which shows all reported leaks across the district, the priority assigned and a description of the priorisation system.

https://gis.wellingtonwater.co.nz/portal/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d484496da52848e4b389116c5a63c9f3

I, along with every other ratepayer, don’t like to see drinking water running down the kerbs from a leak, especially when there are water restrictions. However, since coming onto Council in 2022, I have heard that our water infrastructure which is largely underground is old and in serious need of complete renewal.

In September last year, we attended a workshop where Wellington Water advised us of the condition of the 209 kilometres of pipes, (both drinking water and waste water) which service the  communities throughout the district.

Some 26 percent of that 209 kilometres of pipes (drinking and waste water) are considered to be in critical condition and over the next 30 years we need to be replacing a minimum of 2.6 kilometres every year. Currently we are only replacing 1.2 kilometres annually.

The drinking water pipe network has just eight (8) perecent of pipes in very good condition, 64 percent in good condition, while four (4) percent are in very poor condition. This four percent equates to five kilometres of drinking water pipes, while 10 percent of the pipes are in poor condition.

Personally, I would like to see that we increase our renewals of drinking water pipes by a minimum of 2.6 kilometres each year until we don’t have any pipes classified as in poor or very poor condition, However, that is going to cost money, therefore impacting on rates.

In the next few months council will be releasing the 2024 Long Term Plan for consultation. I imagine there will be discussions about funding our drinking water, waste water and stormwater networks ie; shall we continue to fund what the 2021 Long Term Plan said we should spend in this area or should we spend more? If we spend more, where do we direct that funding towards, where does that money come from and how will that impact rates?

Should we increase replacing our leaking water pipes or spend the funds on other projects? This is a topic, alongside many others, which you may wish to comment on by sending in a submission for the Long Term Plan.

Now for something different! 

Prior to Christmas, council awarded a tender to an experienced earthmoving contractor to carry out repairs to the Hinekura Hill Road. Now that the holiday period is over, work has started at pace to make the area safe and reopen the road so Hinekura residents can again have direct and quick access to Martinborough. The plan is to have the road open for all traffic by the end of March _ which can’t come soon enough for the Hinekura community!

With the hot/dry summer and a total fire ban in place, both the Martinborough Volunteer Fire Brigade and Tora Volunteer Rural Fire Force have been busy attending a number of grass fires across the Wairarapa. A big thanks to all those who volunteer for the time that you dedicate to our communities.

All the best for February. Hopefully farmers get some rain to keep the grass growing, but not too much rain that it will create issues for the vineyards! 

If you wish to contact me to discuss any issues, please email aidan.ellims@swdc.govt.nz