Water is now flowing through a new pipeline aiming to relieve Kaitaia's water crisis.
The pipeline takes bore water from iwi-owned farm directly to the council's water treatment plant on Okahu Road in Northland.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visited the newly built emergency pipeline to observe the work and thank council officials, contractors and iwi for their hard work. She also rallied support for the newly built connection from the Te Rarawa (Bonnetts Road) supply to the Kaitaia Water Treatment Plant, and announced a NZ$10 million drought relief packag, with NZ$3 million earmarked for Northland.
The rural sector across the North Island is currently doing it tough with significant and sustained droughts in many areas," she said. "Water is running low across the board - for drinking supplies, the primary sector and firefighting storage - and we will help our communities to get through it.
Broadspectrum (A Ventia company) is a proud partner of the Far North District Council in the 3 Waters Alliance. We run the operations and maintenance of water, waste water and storm water systems for the Far North District Council.
Broadspectrum Project Supervisor Rick Low told the Prime Minister there wasn't enough 250mm-diameter pipe in the country to build the four kilometre pipeline, and the project would have been delayed by three months waiting for the shipment. The solution? To be innovative and use two 125mm pipes laid side by side with a midline boost pump station to meet peak demand requirements for the plant.
The Kaitaia emergency pipeline takes bore water from Te Rarawa (Bonnetts Road) directly to the council's water treatment plant. The water is then piped to storage tanks and a water tanker filling station to providing supply to the town of Kaitaia and surrounding rural communities on rainwater tank supplies.