Wellington Water staff and contractors have restored water supply to Titahi Bay, after a burst pipe this morning cut all supplies to the Porirua suburb.

The 150mm pipe burst in a shopping centre carpark in Porirua’s main shopping district this morning. It took about six hours to repair.

It was touch and go for a while, with the Titahi Bay reservoir dropping rapidly from a normal operating level of 85%-95% to around 15% of capacity by 3pm.

Wellington Water’s acting general manager of customer operations, Jeremy McKibbin, said he was grateful that supply could be restored in time.

“We were about to deploy emergency distribution points in Titahi Bay when we managed to change water pressures and re-route water in the network to the reservoir, then get the pipe repair done and slowly refill the supply pipe.

“This is a good reminder of the need for people to store adequate supplies at home in case of emergency. An emergency can happen at any time – and it may not be a major earthquake. I hope it doesn’t take people losing water to their homes to prompt them to store enough safe drinking water at home.”

Wellington Water recommends people store enough water to provide each person in their household with 20 litres a day for 7 days, in case of an interruption to supply.

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