Wellington water loss drops but warning investment in new pipes needed
A burst water pipe in Wellington.
Photo:
RNZ / REECE BAKER
New figures show daily water loss across the Wellington region's pipes has dropped by 11 million litres per day, with Wellington Water's chair attributing the change to increased investment in repairs.
The Wellington region had been plagued by leaks in recent years with 41 percent of its water being lost across public and private pipes.
In the 2024/25 financial year the amount of water not making it to taps had dropped to 37 percent -- which equated to 11 million litres per day.
Wellington Water estimated that in total around 4 billion litres of water was saved over the past year.
The water company's chairperson Nick Leggett told
Morning Report
the organisation had been focused on water loss after water supply dropped to low levels in the Summer 2023/24.
During that time the water shortage risk saw residents cut back their usage and flock to buy 200 litre tanks sold by councils, with demand causing a queue at Wellington City Council's tip shop.
"Councils gave us extra money and this is the result."
Leggett said that it was still not good enough given the change was largely driven by patching pipes not replacing them.
He said that it was all around a good saving for the Wellington region, but that the issue of water loss won't go away untill investment was made in the increased renewal of pipes.
"What we have got to do is get onto the really big job over many, many years of replacing these pipes and the new water organisation will be geared up and own the assets so it will be able to fund that."
In a statement Wellington Water committee chair Campbell Barry said to see public leaks drop from over 1700 in January 2024 to under 300 as of June 2025 was a massive turnaround.
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