Waikato District Council says a spate of theft and vandalism of water meters in Huntly over the weekend had the potential to cause extremely serious consequences.
About 10 water meters were targeted overnight on Friday, with some water meter lids lifted and chains tied to meters as offenders used a vehicle to rip the devices out of the ground.
Two of the water meters targeted are serviced by 50mm pipes rather than the standard 20mm domestic pipes. These have the potential to cause serious harm if tampered with if the people are exposed to the high water pressure these bigger pipes are under, the Council said in a statement.
Virtually all the meters targeted service Waikato District Council-owned properties. The result of the ripped-out water meters was a large-scale loss of treated drinking water across Huntly.
Early on Saturday morning, Watercare’s on-call engineer noted that the treated water levels in Kimihia reservoir in Huntly were dropping at an alarming rate. This sparked a rapid response from the Watercare team on a Saturday as they rushed around the various locations repairing the damage.
According to Waikato District Council waters manager, Keith Martin, it was the two locations with the 50mm pipes that were of particular concern.
“As well as the meters themselves, the backflow pipes were ripped out, and with pipes this size it’s like a fire hydrant being opened and the volume of treated water lost is huge,” he said.
“With all those water meters being vandalised at the same time, the impact on the whole drinking water network in Huntly was immense.
“The level at the Kimihia reservoir went down as far as 20%, way below the normal 80% normal level.
“This is really serious as there was a risk there of people having no water for a while. If you think about people who may be on dialysis or families with babies, it is the vulnerable members of our communities that were put at real risk.
“To give you an idea our normal minimum level for a reservoir to ensure security of supply should anything happen is around 55%,” he said.
“There are other consequences of this vandalism. A sudden loss of such a large volume of water, affects the whole Huntly network, causing water pressure issues, as well as quality levels of the water coming out of the tap.
“Taking that into consideration, as well as the staffing impact, it is a needless spend of ratepayer money spent to rectify the effect of theft and vandalism.
“So, there’s a big cost impact, and simply a waste of a precious resource. We’ve put a conservative estimate of a loss of 750 cubic litres of treated water wasted – that’s 750,000 litres. The cost of water treatment of that water is quite literally money down the drain, which is paid for by ratepayers.”
Mr Martin said the Council is at a loss to understand the motivation behind the vandalism.
“It’s baffling and not something we’ve come across before at this scale,” he said.
“But the fact that it seems to be council-owned properties that were targeted over the weekend is a concern.
“If it is motivated by a dispute, it means that it is even more worrying because these people planned this and may understand the impact of what they are doing to the detriment of the good people of Huntly and the ratepayer in general.
“People may laugh and think Council will pay for it, but in reality it’s the ratepayers that who pay for it.”
Council has filed a report with the police.
While Watercare has the situation under control and is closely monitoring the network, Council is asking the public to report any instances of water meter tampering to Police.
