VIDEO - Sweetwater plug-in a step closer

A container-sized membrane unit has been installed in the latest stage of a long-awaited to project to link two bores at Sweetwater to the Kaitāia water supply.

The water treatment equipment, which has been in transit from Australia since before Christmas, arrived onsite at the Kaitāia Water Treatment plant earlier this week, and was installed on Wednesday (22 January).

Now the unit is in place, some civil and electrical work is being carried out to connect the mains power supply and generator. These could only be undertaken with the membrane filter in place. Once these works are completed, which are scheduled to take up to two weeks, the next stage will be for water from Sweetwater to be introduced to the Kaitāia’s water supply.

The installation of the membrane unit was expected on Tuesday but due to severe weather conditions sweeping the region, the work was delayed by 24 hours for safety reasons.

Kaitāia is one of three Far North water supplies that currently have no water restrictions although consumers are encouraged to use water sensibly. Level 2 water restrictions that ban the use of outdoor sprinklers or irrigation systems are in place in Kerikeri-Waipapa, Paihia-Waitangi-Ōpua, and Kawakawa-Moerewa. Level 3 restrictions that ban the use of hoses, as well as outdoor sprinklers and irrigation systems, are in place for the Ōmanaia-Rāwene and Ōpononi-Ōmāpere water supplies. Watch the video of the installation crew in action below.