Omāroro Water Reservoir

The Community Reference Group is a forum for the community and stakeholders to be actively involved in the project planning and management. Established as part of the project’s consenting requirements, the CRG is made up of representatives of key residential and community organisations and meets regularly with the project team.

Omāroro will provide critical additional bulk water storage for Wellington’s central business district area and low-lying suburbs to improve operational and disaster resilience.

Omāroro involves constructing:

• a 35 million litre buried concrete reservoir in Prince of Wales Park in the Town Belt
• connecting it to the existing water supply with a supporting new pipeline corridor along Wallace Street
• renewing of local water supplies, stormwater pipes and wastewater pipes in the area

Partners

Omāroro is a joint project led by Wellington Water, which manages the city’s drinking water, stormwater and wastewater; working with Wellington City Council and the Greater Wellington Regional Council 

Iwi Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika (Taranaki Whānui) and Te Rūnanga o Toa Rangatira Incorporated (Toa Rangatira) are strategic partners in the council’s decision making process as our Tiriti o Waitangi partners.

And it involves the community. Right from the start, we’ve worked closely with residents and businesses most affected by the project ensuring they are informed and able to have input every step of the way.  The Community Reference Group is a forum for active community and stakeholder involvement during the construction phase.

Why resilience?

It’s important for a city to have enough water stored to allow for at least two days’ normal use and to enable repairs, maintenance and upgrades to be done without disrupting supply.

That’s called operational resilience and right now our city’s storage capacity is not up to scratch.

The city’s water supply network is also vulnerable. Underground pipes and reservoirs could be badly damaged in a significant earthquake and as a result some suburbs could be without drinking water for more than 100 days.

Our resilience programme

Omāroro is part of Wellington Water’s ongoing work to improve the resilience of the region’s water supply network and increase water storage in case of a disaster.

Over the last two years, we have established a new above ground emergency water network that will supply more than 400,000 people across Wellington from day eight following a disaster.

It’s important to remember that following a major earthquake, the first thing people rely on is themselves and their families, so storing water is a must for every household.

You should have 20 litres of stored water for every person, every day, for at least seven days.

This page is an archive of all consenting documents (top list) and Community Reference Group documents  (scroll down to the second list to access these).