News and media

Today, Wellington Water updated shareholding councils on work underway to make wide ranging improvements to achieve better value for money, and advised significant change is still needed.

This ongoing work addresses a requirement from councils for us to find better value for money as well as recommendations made in the independent review of an error in our budgeting advice for councils’ 2024-34 Long Term Plans. The review found issues with organisational structure, systems and processes, lack of strong checks and balances, lack of strategic leadership and wider problems with organisational culture.

Wellington Water will soon begin critical rehabilitation work on the Western Hills Sewer Main, a key wastewater pipeline running beneath State Highway 2 (SH2) in Lower Hutt.

Featherston and Greytown will move to Level 2 Water Restrictions at 12.01AM on Monday 17 February 2025, meaning a ban on sprinklers and irrigation systems for residential households.

As of January 31st, 2025, we completed a full review of the fluoride dosing system at Waterloo, and have identified and resolved the issue which resulted in the brief spike in fluoride dosing on Thursday 23 January 2025.

Wellington Water is working to identify the cause of a brief spike in the fluoride levels at Waterloo Treatment Plant.

Recent data from Wellington Water shows leaks in the Wellington metropolitan region (Wellington City, Porirua, Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt) have hit a 4-year low this month, dropping from 1,720 leaks on January 1, 2024 to just under 400 leaks on January 6, 2025 on the public network – a reduction of over 75%.
Council’s increased investment in leaks enabled Wellington Water to ramp up leak repairs, with all councils leaks at or nearing a sustainable level.

High water use in Martinborough has increased the risk of the town triggering Water Restriction Level 2 in the coming weeks.

A key upgrade to the region’s critical water infrastructure has been delivered ahead of schedule and is already having a positive effect on the region’s water supply.

“The Te Mārua Water Treatment Plant is a critical piece of the region’s water supply as it provides around 45% of the region’s drinking water,” says Greater Wellington councillor and Te Awa Kairangi Subcommitee chair Ros Connelly, whose council fund and own the region’s water treatment plants.

“The first of two stages of recent upgrades completed by Wellington Water mean the plant is now able to treat and supply an additional 20 million litres of drinking water per day.

“This milestone is great news and an important step towards increasing Wellington’s water supply resilience, especially as the region enters summer, when we experience tighter water restrictions.”