A fix to stop millions of litres of sewage continuing to pour into the waters off the coast of New Zealand\u2019s capital, Wellington will be in place by November, officials have said, with full repairs at the cost of NZ$53.5m by late next year.<\/p>\n
More than 100 days since the catastrophic failure of the city\u2019s wastewater treatment plant<\/a> on 4 February, a mix of raw and partially screened human effluent is still being flushed directly into the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n In an announcement on Wednesday, Wellington\u2019s mayor, Andrew Little, said the Moa Point wastewater plant would be operational again in six months. Work had begun to assess the damage and clean the plant, with all major repair works to be completed by November. By then, effluent would be removed and the waste products would be mostly treated, with water quality improving to the highest level within weeks.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are looking for certainty about when the plant will be up and running, and I\u2019m confident this can be relied upon in terms of a timeline,\u201d Little said, saying it would provide reassurance to hard-hit businesses on Wellington\u2019s South Coast which had faced \u201cmassive disruption\u201d. Full restoration of capacity and a fix for the design flaw that caused the failure would be completed by late 2027, officials said.<\/p>\n Wellington residents had mixed feelings about the latest update, saying human and marine health and livelihoods remained at risk. \u201cIt would be better if it hadn\u2019t happened, and we should still be significantly worried about the penguins, the dolphins, the fish who are going to be eating raw sewage,\u201d said Nicole Miller, chair of the trust that supports the Taputeranga marine reserve, a network of pristine reefs and underwater ecosystems in the disaster zone.<\/p>\n Destination Kilbirnie general manager Steve Walters said they were disappointed with a longer-than-anticipated timeline. The two dozen businesses most affected \u2013 which include diving and water recreation companies \u2013 were projected to lose a combined NZ$3-4m in earnings, and that was if the plant was fixed by September. Now, some may not make it through winter. \u201cOur concerns are is this going to happen again,\u201d Walters said. \u201cThis is a council failure, and we still have to pay rates, electricity, staff costs. We feel let down, frustrated, and in a state of \u2018how are we going to survive this?\u201d A council business subsidy of NZ$200,000 was not enough, and legal action was being considered, he said.<\/p>\n An independent crown review of the disaster is due in August, with two damage reports finding an air bubble in a pipe had likely contributed to the flooding of the treatment plant, destroying 80% of equipment. Since February, sewage has been pouring into the Cook Strait. When it rains, sewage appears just metres offshore, closing beaches.<\/p>\n In February, residents were warned about the risks associated with the sewage spill. Photograph: Hagen Hopkins<\/p>\n Wellington Water\u2019s chief operating operator, Charles Barker, told the Guardian they were working \u201cincredibly fast\u201d on the complex plan. \u201cIf you look at the scale of the floods, the enormity of the task, it\u2019s not surprising. If this was a house you\u2019d still be in the recovery phase as well.\u201d<\/p>\n The rebuild would focus on preventing another disaster, he said, adding there had been no indication the plant would fail. \u201cNothing in our understanding of the plant over 30 years led us to believe it couldn\u2019t do what it was designed to do.\u201d The chance of the plant flooding again would be \u201celiminated\u201d once the work was complete, he said.<\/p>\n The Moa Point facility is owned and overseen by two layers of local government and a council-owned water utility \u2013 Wellington Water \u2013 which contracts the French-owned waste management company Veolia to run the plant. On 1 July, a new entity called Tiaki Wai \u2013 created by the government as part of its water reforms \u2013 will take over the Wellington region\u2019s water assets.<\/p>\n The disaster comes as a national Climate Change Commission report highlights the country\u2019s water infrastructure<\/a> as at major risk of failure during increasing storm events.<\/p>\n