Water Deliveries Organised for Rural Rodney

3 April 2020. Auckland is in drought and the effects are particularly being felt by the rural communities. In response, Auckland Council has launched a bulk water tanker delivery programme to parched rural communities in rural Rodney.

The Council has sent in a fleet of relief bulk water tankers, commissioned from the Fonterra fleet, to assist with water deliveries to desperate families on tank water. These drivers are working with local private water carriers to get more water to more customers more quickly.

As the Rodney ward Councillor I have lead this initiative via Auckland Council’s emergency management unit. Action was required to get water to our rural families who were completely out of water. Their situation being dire.

I wish to acknowledge the tremendous support of the Mayor, Watercare and council staff in helping achieve this initiative which had never been tried before.

On 15 February the first tanker-to-tanker operations began. Using carefully sterilized milk tankers they have been carting in water from the city reservoirs and off-loading to local water delivery companies. The massive milk tankers, usually two at a time, are arriving pre-filled with water, so they are not using the local water reservoirs which are themselves under strain.

This allows the local water delivery companies the option to either fill from the local reservoirs or from the milk tankers, reducing wait times and allowing them to complete more trips in a day. A single milk tanker can fill four water delivery trucks. It takes less than 8 minutes to fill from the milk tanker, which are not equipped for delivering water straight to home tanks.

In addition to its regular tanker filling sites, the Council provided these at Kaukapakapa, Matakana and Wellsford. On average 1 million litres a day of extra water is being delivered across Auckland to rural communities on tank water using this initiative.

It will take time, but households on tank supply will find their delivery times will come forward. The correct process to get tank water delivered is to call your preferred water delivery company. They are inundated with calls so you will probably need to leave a voice mail message, text or send an email.

If you have concerns about a vulnerable family member’s well-being, or need water for stock due to water shortages, then call Auckland Council directly (09 3010101) and log your concern with the Emergency Management unit. The Council is co-ordinating with the Ministry of Primary Industries to get water to stock.

With time the hard-working water delivery drivers will get things back under control… in the meantime we will need to be patient. Everyone is trying their hardest.

I wish to thank those affected by the drought for showing great patience, with a special thank you to the frazzled water tank drivers who are working so hard to get relief to the affected families.