Residents of Puriri and Matatoki may experience an increase in their water pressure from Monday 13 January as we work to improve the water supply to meet the consent limits set by Waikato Regional Council (WRC).

Historically, water supply in Matatoki has been met from Matatoki Stream. However, under our Council’s 2014 resource consent from WRC, we can't take more than 259.2m3 per day from that source, which is not enough to meet the demand.

To better manage the supply to Matatoki, the following work has already been completed:

• A trunk main connection to link the Apakura (Puriri) source to Matatoki;
• Connected the Wainui Road properties to the Puriri supply;
• Installed bulk water meters to identify high-use zones; and,
• Installed water meters on all known connections to the water supply.

We anticipated that the bulk water meters would help us identify high leakage, which we could then fix to improve water supply in Matatoki, but it's now evident this is not a final solution as demand in the area, which is predominantly dairy farms, is higher than expected.

Therefore, the only way to meet this demand without breaching the Matatoki resource consent is to provide water from the Puriri supply.

We have previously had short trials doing this but experienced insufficient pressure at the network extremities.

Although the Puriri source is considerably higher than the Matatoki reservoir, the upper supply line has a pressure break chamber that was installed to reduce pressures in the Hauraki District, which was historically also supplied from Puriri.

That's why on Monday 13 January we will completely bypass the pressure break system, to see if the pipe network is robust enough to withstand the pressure required to feed water to the end of Matatoki Rd.

If you are a resident or property owner in Puriri or Matatoki, please contact us as soon as possible if you notice any detrimental effects, such as leaks or other issues within your property which may result from the increased pressure.

Contact our Engineering Project Manager Ian Smith on ian.smith@tcdc.govt.nz or call 027 706 6810.

For more information on our ongoing upgrade to water supplies in the Thames Valley part of our district, go to tcdc.govt.nz/thamesvalleywater.

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