Pump fails at Martinborough water supply. Conserve water now!

Piers Fuller Reporter from News of Wairarapa

Engineers at Martinborough's water plant are scrambling to install a spare pump after the main supply pump fails.
South Wairarapa Mayor Alex Beijen was urging the community to stop outside watering and to conserve water generally in the wake of the failure.
"On Monday evening, the pump on the township's low-manganese bore faulted and is being urgently replaced. With no water being pumped the water reservoir reserves are going down," he said.
Installing the spare pump could be done within a day, but until the reservoir levels have recovered and we know the replacement pump is working well, we must conserve water, Beijen said.
"It's essential that the community immediately responds to this pressing need to conserve water. If the township uses more water than we can supply from the low-manganese bore, we will have to use the other bores as well. That could mean the town's drinking water becoming discoloured.
"Although safe to drink, the water could lose its clarity due to the reaction between manganese and chlorine – we want to avoid discoloured water if we can.
"We're addressing infrastructure replacement as fast as possible, and this is unfortunate timing of an equipment failure," he said..
Information on how to conserve water will be shared throughout the community – you can find out more at www.wellingtonwater.co.nz...