Customers who were without water following a watermain break in west Auckland late yesterday afternoon have had their service restored.

Watercare and its contractor had finished repairing, recharging and flushing the large-diameter watermain by early morning.

Watercare chief operations officer Mark Bourne says: “Service has been restored to customers, though some may notice lower-than-normal pressure today. A handful of customers – particularly those who live at the end of dead-end streets – may still be without water which should be resolved by late morning.

“There’s a chance that some customers will have water that is discoloured or looks milky. We encourage them not to be alarmed as its not harmful to a person’s health – the water was tested this morning and meets drinking water standards. However, we recommend they run a cold tap for 10 minutes to see if it clears. If it doesn’t, they should try again in an hour ahead of getting in touch with us.”

Bourne says while the company initially estimated that up to 15,000 people were affected, with up to 3,000 of those without water, that is unlikely to have been the case.

“Within hours of the break, we had reconfigured the network. We believe this was more successful than we first thought and that the number of people who were without water is likely to have been less than 1,000.”

“We would like to thank those impacted by the watermain break for their patience and support.”

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