Published 21/02/2025
Wellington Water encouraged by faster response and repair times across the region.
Wellington Water’s data shows that over the past 12 months there has been a steady reduction in response and repair times, with low urgency water repairs being resolved much faster than a year ago.
The median response timeframe for non-urgent work across the region has steadily dropped by 76%, from 21 days in January 2024, to 5 days in December 2024, with median repair timeframes down from 34 days to 16 days (a 52% reduction). The median response time for urgent work has dropped from 110 to 81 minutes, with median repair timeframes down from 315 minutes to 231 minutes.
“This makes a big difference because it means we are stopping small issues from becoming big issues that ultimately would make it harder for homes and businesses,” says Wellington Water Chair, Nick Leggett.
Nick Leggett says repair times are steadily reducing from councils having increased their funding in critical areas like leak fixes and due to work to increase efficiency across the Wellington Water organisation and its management of contracts.
“This timing is no coincidence. At the start of 2024 we started to see the benefits of council’s increased investment finding and fixing leaks, which has helped us deliver the results we’re seeing today.
“When leaks were at their highest, we didn’t have the funding available to find and fix them all,” explains Nick, “So to protect our water supply we had to focus on the biggest leaks first. Unfortunately, this meant that smaller, non-urgent leaks were left for weeks, if not months. These lingering leaks were a cause of real frustration for residents, and rightly so.
“Now we're seeing the real-life impact of council’s investment decisions and our team’s mahi on our streets and in our communities.”
Wellington Water has also been taking a hard look at frontline operations to identify efficiencies and deliver better results for councils and their ratepayers.
“Over the past few months we have reset the scope with Fulton Hogan, who we contract to help us run our network maintenance and operations,” says Nick. “We’ve implemented a new performance framework with very clear KPIs. These improved response and repair times are some of the best we’ve seen in the 5 years since we began working together. It’s a clear signal that this reset has been a step in the right direction - but there’s more work to be done.”
Following an organisational review, Wellington Water’s board have moved with urgency to implement recommendations, like improving operational effectiveness, identifying value for money opportunities, and strengthening culture and ways of working. This also included a restructure with clearer roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities to deliver efficiencies, which came into place on February 10th.
“We’re leaving no stone un-turned as we work to improve our performance – these improved response and repair times are simply one of a number of things we are doing,” adds Nick. “We know that more challenges lie ahead, and it won’t always be easy – but we’re committed to continuous improvement and look forward to seeing the positive impacts of the changes already made.”
Editor notes
Wellington Water is owned and fully funded by Wellington City Council, Hutt City Council, Porirua City Council, and Upper Hutt City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council and South Wairarapa District Council. All six councils are equal shareholders.
Our councils own the water infrastructure in the region, and they task us to manage the infrastructure and deliver water services to our communities.
Wellington Water is governed by a Board of Directors. The Board and our organisation receive overall leadership and direction from the Wellington Water Committee, which are also responsible for appointing members to the Board.
The Wellington Water Committee is made up of representatives from our council owners and mana whenua.