Sweetwater Bore and Pipeline
The bores at Sweetwater Farm began supplying supplementary water to Kaitāia on 19 February 2025. The bores are located 14kim from the Okahu Road water treatment plant in Kaitāia.
Information on the project to construct the bores can be found here.
News stories about the Sweetwater Bore and Pipeline
Supplementary water from two bores at Sweetwater began flowing to Kaitāia homes yesterday, marking a significant milestone in improving the drought resilience of the district’s second largest town.
On Tuesday, water extracted from bores located 14km from the Okahu Road water treatment plant in Kaitāia was added to the town’s storage reservoir. This then feeds water to Kaitāia customers.
Adding bore water to the supply followed final checks on a mobile membrane unit that was installed at the plant late in January. Numerous checks on electrical and reticulation systems were then undertaken to commission the new unit. A final compliance laboratory test of the bore water was completed on Monday (17 February).
In early 2020, Kaitāia had the strictest (Level 4) water restrictions applied to households and businesses when it experienced its sixth drought in nine years. Flows in its main water source, the Awanui River, fell to the lowest level since records began 50 years ago.
The Sweetwater project reduces Kaitāia's reliance on the Awanui River by providing an alternative source of high-quality drinking water. This will alleviate pressure on the river, especially during dry summer months, and will help to avoid the need for future water restrictions.
The completion of this new water supply is seen as a crucial step toward ensuring a more consistent and dependable water source for Kaitāia residents, businesses, and industries.
Photo credit: Mike Dinsdale (Northland Age)
A container-sized membrane unit has been installed in the latest stage of a long-awaited 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.
Supplementary water sourced from two bores at Sweetwater will begin flowing to Kaitāia homes once a water treatment unit arrives from Australia.
The mobile membrane unit has been shipped and is currently in transit. Once installed, it will allow groundwater from an aquifer to be mixed with raw water obtained from the Awanui River, Kaitāia’s primary water source. The groundwater supply will significantly improve the drought resilience of the district’s second-largest town.
Head of Infrastructure for Far North District Council, Tanya Proctor, says that all preparations for the membrane unit are on track to be completed ahead of its arrival. That includes providing power, installing holding tanks and obtaining required resource consents.
“We are literally just waiting for the ship to arrive. As soon as we can get the unit unloaded, cleared and transported north, we can plug in and commission the membrane unit.”
Last month during his State of the Far North address to the public, Mayor Moko Tepania promised that the long-awaited Sweetwater project would be completed in December. During the address, Kahika Tepania acknowledged that Kaitāia residents had heard similar promises in the past only to be disappointed.
Ms Proctor says meeting the December deadline remained possible, but with the Christmas holiday break looming the timeline was looking increasingly tight. “Like anyone ordering goods from overseas, our plans are entirely reliant upon the shipping lines. I can’t say exactly when our filter will land, but I can confirm that it is in transit and will be delivered in coming weeks.”
Kaitāia is one of five 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 were applied to the Kawakawa-Moerewa, Ōmanaia-Rāwene and Ōpononi-Ōmāpere water supplies from Monday 16 December.
According to Northland Regional Council’s latest climate report for November, most of Northland is ‘moderately dry’ to ‘severely dry’. For the three months from November, soil moisture levels are likely to be below average and river flows are likely to be near or below normal.
