Water finally restored in Dargaville
Photo:
RNZ / Peter de Graaf
Water has finally been fully restored in Dargaville after a massive outage caused by four separate pipeline ruptures last week.
Friday's breakages in the 40-kilometre water supply pipeline all but emptied the town's water reservoir and left most homes without running water or under tight restrictions.
Kaipara District Council said water was restored to the last homes on upper Hokianga Road, late on Sunday afternoon.
However, a resident living just off Hokianga Road told RNZ her taps only started flowing again on Monday night, an outage of almost four days.
The council had to scramble to set up water tankers and portaloos around town during the King's Birthday long weekend, while contractors brought in extra staff from Whangārei and Auckland to fix the pipe.
In an update posted late on Sunday, the council said tap water in some parts of town was still discoloured, but it had been treated and was safe to drink.
The discolouration was caused by sediment being stirred up as the tanks were refilled.
A council spokesperson urged Dargaville residents to continue using water conservatively while levels recovered.
As of Sunday evening, the reservoir was about 25 percent full.
The delay in reinstating water to the upper Hokianga Road area - including Panorama Place, Cobham Avenue and Mountview Place - was due to problems with the booster pumps, the council said.
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