$9.5m worth of work needed for Napier’s water supply

$9.5m worth of work needed for Napier’s water supply 21 Dec, 2017 7:00am 3 minutes to read It could be an expensive path forward to bring Napier’s water supply up to standard.
At the final 2017 Napier City Council meeting yesterday, councillors considered accelerating $6.3 million worth of projects to improve the city’s water supply, as part of a total $9.5m plan.
This was in response to the findings of the Government’s inquiry into the Havelock North water contamination.
But this is no longer enough, with the inquiry recommending the secure bore concept be removed from the NZDWS – meaning more treatment will be need to provide a barrier to pathogen risk.
Some capital works already included in the draft Long Term Plan would need to be accelerated "as early as practicable".
These included consolidating treatment from 10 chlorinators, to two permanent "state of the art" treatment plants at Taradale and Awatoto costing $1.7m, and replacing four existing below ground bores at Taradale and creating a trunk main from a treatment plant to the city’s reservoirs at a cost of $4.6m.
As well as the projects brought forward, there were five other projects which could not be deferred, a paper before council noted.
These included a $1m district metering project, new bores in Awatoto at a cost of $1m, new treatment plants at $1.7m, $250,000 earmarked for improving bores, $95,000 for dedicated water takes from hydrants, and an $880 project for improvements to reservoir inlet and outlets.
Rates were increased by an additional 1 per cent this year for costs relating to water network improvements.
Yesterday the council agreed to note the adoption of "urgent and early recommendations" from the inquiry, including maintaining incident chlorination of the water supply, not recognising secure bore status for Napier as a barrier to pathogens, and to continue fully participating in the joint working group.

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