Auckland's water provider is still dealing with more than 80 breaks in its wastewater network after extreme weather damaged infrastructure across the city.
Watercare's northern networks operations manager Tim Scheirlinck told 1News there are temporary solutions in place to maintain wastewater services in the most severely impacted areas.
He said the damage is primarily affecting the northern and western parts of the city.
"For example, we have overland hoses and pumps powered by generators set up to transfer wastewater between manholes, in sections where the pipe has failed.
"Given the huge amount of work we have ahead of us, some of these temporary solutions may be in place for quite some time while we plan and carry out permanent repairs. We are now finetuning the temporary solutions to minimise disruption to our customers as much as possible.
"We held drop-in sessions in West Auckland and the North Shore last week to give customers the opportunity to come and talk to our staff about any issues in their communities. We are taking all feedback on board," Scheirlinck said.
It comes as Aucklanders will have to pay more for their water and wastewater services from July as provider Watercare locks in a 9.5% price increase.
The organisation said it is sticking to the price path it communicated in 2021, despite facing "significant challenges" such as high inflation and extreme weather events.
Hadfield Street, on Auckland's North Shore is one of the 80 areas affected.
On Monday, Beach Haven resident Gary Flynn told 1News about 10 households in Hadfield St which were given portaloos to use while they await a fix to wastewater pipes that broke in the Auckland Anniversary floods more than six weeks ago.
Flynn said that on March 9 his partner arrived home from work to find a portaloo blocking the driveway.
"The day after the letter was sent, we arrived home to Prestige portaloos and Shitbox branded loos dotted along our side of the street. Ours was placed at the bottom of our drive facing the street and we couldn't get our cars in.
"Our elderly neighbours have theirs placed at a precarious angle at the top of the drive on the verge and looks as if it would fall over were it to be used."
He said their family couldn't open the windows in the house because of the noise and "disgusting" diesel fumes from the 24/7-powered generator.
Residents surprised by street portaloos
Several other residents in the street shared their concerns with 1News.
Sharon Pidgeon lives down a steep driveway and said she didn't realise portaloos were arriving until they found a leaflet "blowing around in the yard" and figured there would be an upcoming delivery.
"The letter said portaloos were coming but there was no timeframe that you had to start using them.
"There still hasn't been — so we had to assume we use them straight away."
She said the portaloo was at the top of the driveway "on a lean" for about four days before it was moved close to the house. But she said they only use it once a day.
"Only when nobody's around," she said.
Another resident, Jackie Neeve, told 1News their sewage is flowing down onto the beach below.
"We came out one day, they'd laid this pipe, installed a generator about 30 metres down the road — which goes 24/7, spewing out diesel fumes. It's really annoying the neighbourhood," she said.
Further up the road, Jo Knight said her concern lies around the effect of sewage on the environment.
"I'd very much like to see Watercare come around and speak to each one of these residents and help them get eco-friendly cleaners so we lessen the impact — because between the storm and the breaking of the sewage pipes, there is enormous ecological impact down in this valley," she said.
Flynn said Watercare has told residents the fix may take more than a year but has agreed to provide portaloos which could be used inside, "similar to what you'd use in a caravan".
"Unfortunately, due to the landslip, there are a handful of homes that we could not connect. To reduce the environmental impact, we have provided portaloos for these customers to use while we work with them on a more suitable temporary solution," Scheirlinck said on Monday.
"We recognise that the temporary set-up in place is not ideal and have taken on board feedback from local residents. We're now working on improvements to the set up — including using a connected power source (offered by one of the home-owners) instead of a generator — that will reduce noise and disruption.
"We need to carry out geotechnical investigations before we can confirm what the permanent fix to the wastewater network will be and how long it might take. We'll keep the community updated as we make progress here.
"Some customers have suggested alternative options to a portaloo and we're happy to make these changes," Scheirlinck said.
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