Sewage-flooded couple find a Fair Go fix with Watercare

Aaron Meek had been waking with alarm every time it rains hard, but last week he woke to a downpour, then rolled over and went back to sleep peacefully.

"Massive thank you to Fair Go, really appreciated."

The source of the peace?

Watercare boosted an offer to provide a short-term fix to a nasty problem at the family home in Blockhouse Bay.

"I don't think we would have got to where we are today had it not been for Fair Go," Meek says.

The source of the problem? Truly disgusting.

In heavy downpours, raw sewage blew back from the public pipes and erupted up from the gully traps, strewing faecal matter, toilet paper and period products over the lawns and into the house.

To date, Watercare has spent $2300 cleaning and disinfecting after the incidents.

It had proposed a short-term fix, with a catch.

It would install a one-way valve on the private part of the drain leading to the public sewer, but the family would then own that and be responsible for upkeep and repairs.

Wife Nicole Brooke-Cowden was adamant:

"We don't want to pay that cost because it's not our sewage coming up, it's everyone elses, so we feel the onus is on Watercare to actually step up and own it."

Watercare has investigated and says the drains and public sewers are working as intended.

Watercare chief operations officer Mark Bourne says the problem arises from major rainfall events and is made worse by houses uphill allowing roof water to run into the sewer system and overload it, causing the blow-backs.

It's prompted a public plea to all home owners from Bourne.

"Take a look at where your down pipe goes. That's collecting the roof water from your gutter and popping it out. Where's that going? Make sure please it's not directed to a gully trap, because that's storm water entering the waste water system. Probably won't have any impact on your property, but it has huge impacts downstream."

Watercare was not budging on its offer, but Fair Go has since heard from several other Auckland homeowners reporting they've had one-way sewer valves fitted by Watercare for free to help prevent sewage backflows, with stories that Watercare or its contractors had carried out maintenance, also for free.

Watercare confirmed one device had been repaired after an incident while another had been fitted to a public section of pipe to help a private property — all at Watercare's cost.

Mark Bourne then visited the couple in Blockhouse Bay to see the extra drainage they'd laid to prevent flooding and heard how they face a massive increase in insurance premiums after the blackwater incident.

Bourne has since written to the couple expressing his sympathy and improving the offer of a free valve by undertaking that Watercare would also repair that valve if it failed and left another filthy mess.

The couple would only need to check the valve themselves before any major storm strikes.

"We are happy with that, we're going to accept the offer, which is what we were basically wanting at the beginning," Brooke-Cowden says.

"Thank you Watercare, thank you for finally coming to the party," husband Meek adds.

More on this topic

Family battles Watercare over public sewer dumping in their back yard

An Auckland family says it's being asked to pay for other people's pollution, after wastewater surges from the public sewer blanketed their backyard in filth during floods.

Health

June 12, 2023

9:20

He says the lesson he learned was that peace comes from persistence.

"If there are people out there that are suffering the same sort of problems, don't just brush it away and think 'oh, I'm getting nowhere'. Don't give up."