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Watercare’s proactive water leak detection programme is underway on the Hibiscus Coast with a team combing the streets listening for leaks that are often invisible to the eye.
Watercare leak detection programme manager, Lucas Gan, says the organisation will cover 457km of public pipes on the Coast to identify and fix leaks in our water supply network.
The initiative is part of a regionwide push to reduce water loss through leaks and increase water security for Auckland, with more than 5300km of pipes audited so far this financial year.
Teams use specialist audio equipment, a bit like a stethoscope for pipes, to listen for a specific noise that indicates a leak bubbling away under the surface, usually invisible to the eye.
“We check the pipeline at several different times of the day to confirm it is a leak,” Gan says. “ We can then estimate the volume of the leak based on the sound detected – a big leak will be a loud leak.”
When a leak is detected, it’s reported to Watercare’s faults team, and a repair crew is sent to find and resolve the problem.
So far, the team has found (and are on track to fix) more than 50 leaks on the Coast and are expected to wrap up work in mid-June.
Leakage survey supervisor, Quinn Erickstad, says people have been kind and curious as the team goes about its work. He says each section posed different challenges.
“Compared to other zones we check across the city, our work on the Hibiscus Coast is the largest, with every type of terrain we could expect to encounter – industrial, new/old/tightly-packed suburbia, rural and open roads,” Erickstad says.
It’s the first time the programme has come to the Hibiscus Coast because suburbs and sub-regions have been prioritised based on need, with other areas of Auckland typically having higher volumes of leaks reported.
Since the programme started, last July, total leakage across Watercare’s pipelines has decreased by 14 million litres a day.
“The reduction in leaks is a result of the combined efforts of our leak detection programme, repair crews and customers proactively reporting leaks in the public network when they see them,” Gan says.
Watercare is responsible for maintaining water pipes up to where they meet the point of supply on private property and carries out a proactive leak detection programme as part of a wider push to reduce water loss across the city’s network of pipes.
“There are more than 440,000 connections to our network, and each has its own network of private plumbing – there could well be more kilometres of private pipes in Auckland than there are public, so if everyone carried out a simple leak test, the potential for water savings is huge.”
Info on finding a water leak at home: waterforlife.co.nz/leaks or phone 09 442 2222 and press 1 to report a leak or burst pipe on public property.
