Water flowing again in Kawakawa

Water has been restored to Kawakawa after extensive repairs to a mains pipeline that links the town to its storage reservoir.

Contractors worked for more than 20 hours in terrible weather conditions to fix the break that occurred on a difficult-to-access hill above the cycle trail.

Contractors finally left the site at around 3am today (Tuesday 21 January) but returned this morning to check water flows, pressures and valves around Kawakawa.

While water is now flowing to all parts of the town, water pressures may take a little longer to get back to normal.

The water main break occurred at around 9pm on Sunday but due to the challenging terrain and the stormy conditions, contractors had to wait until first light yesterday to begin repairs for safety reasons.

Water tankers were deployed to the community, distributing water free of charge to residents throughout the outage.

Pictured: The extensive damage to the mains pipeline at Kawakawa.