Westport running out of water after slips damage water supply

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

Westport residents are being asked to conserve water after multiple slips stopped water getting to the town's reservoir.

The slips happened during last week’s orange heavy rain event that caused mandatory evacuations on the West Coast, 22 homes to be flooded and road closures.

Buller mayor Jamie Cleine said no water was getting to the town’s reservoir after multiple slips came down in the Sergeant’s Hill area just north of Westport.

“Either the intake pipes are damaged or they are that muddy it is not getting through."

Council staff and contractors were working on the slips and investigating the cause.

The reservoir currently was about 80 per cent full but that would only last days, he said.

As a result, the Emergency Operations Centre was still operational and the state of emergency, which was due to expire on Thursday, was likely to be extended.

A contingency plant could include redirecting some creeks into the reservoir, but it was likely not enough, he said.

“We are bringing in expertise to help us come up with a fix and we are all busy scurrying around to figure out what we can stack up,” he said.

Waimangaroa, just north of Westport, had been without water since Thursday last week after slips damaged the pipes along Conns Creek Rd, but the supply was restored on Monday afternoon.