New water reservoir proposed for Lower Hutt

Wellington Water wants to hear from the Lower Hutt community on a proposal to build a new reservoir next to the existing Naenae Reservoir.

 The proposed new reservoir would be able to store 15 million litres of water, equivalent to six Olympic sized swimming pools and provide drinking water to more than 50,000 residents.

 Like the rest of the Wellington region, Lower Hutt’s water supply network is vulnerable to earthquakes and needs to improve its resilience, and significant growth is expected in the coming years.

 Laurence Edwards, Wellington Water’s Chief Advisor Drinking Water, says it is an important project that would provide long-term benefits to the Lower Hutt community.

 “A new reservoir will supply enough safe and healthy drinking water to cater for growth and increasing demand for water and reduce impacts on customers from network maintenance activity and repairs. It will be constructed to modern seismic standards, providing safe drinking water that is critical to community survival, service restoration, and recovery following a large earthquake.”

 Wellington Water investigated 28 possible sites for the proposed new reservoir with the preferred site being at Summit Road Naenae, after evaluating environmental, social, technical, and financial impacts.

 “The proposed site has numerous attributes for the reservoir including the required elevation, and an existing reservoir with much of the necessary infrastructure for a new build. Another factor is site accessibility, and being undeveloped land, there is room to landscape after construction and minimise aesthetic impacts, maintaining the look of the existing area as much as possible,” says Mr Edwards.

Wellington Water and Hutt City Council is hosting drop-in sessions for the Lower Hutt community and other interested parties to answer questions and provide more information about the proposal.

 Following community engagement, Wellington Water on behalf of Hutt City Council will apply for resource consent for construction of the reservoir. The resource consent process will be managed by the council.

 Pending approval, construction could begin in mid-2024 and take 2 years to build.

 Editors’ notes

The current Naenae Reservoir has capacity for 11.3 million litres and the proposal is to retain this.

Timeline

March 2023 – Community engagement

May 2023 – Reports and submissions collated

June - July 2023 – Notice of requirement (NOR) lodged and resource consent application to GWRC under the Resource Management Act 1991 for the construction of the reservoir.

Community drop-in sessions

5.30pm – 7.30pm, Thursday 9 March

CoCo Pop Up Community Space, 11 Hillary Court, Naenae

 
9am – 12pm, Saturday 11 March

CoCo Pop Up Community Space, 11 Hillary Court, Naenae