Leaks waste more than 15 million litres of water a day in Hawke's Bay

Leaky pipes in Napier and Hastings waste more than 15 million litres of water every day, a new report has found.

By Linda Hall of Local Democracy Reporting

The Network Environmental Performance Report for the 2024/25 financial year, produced by the Water Services Authority, Taumata Arowai, includes data from councils across the country, including Wairoa District, Central Hawke's Bay District, Hastings District and Napier City.

The report shows Hastings District loses 436 litres per connection every day, the sixth-highest loss rate among the country’s 62 councils, while Napier City loses 197 litres per connection daily.

Hastings District Council’s network has around 23,000 connections, and it wastes 10,028,000 litres of water daily.

Napier City Council’s 28,000 drinking water connections are losing 197 litres per connection per day, a total of 5,516,000 litres per day wasted.

No data was provided in the report regarding leaks in Wairoa and CHB.

Hawke's Bay regional councillor Neil Kirton said he was concerned by both the data in the report, and what it lacked.

"It is likely that all the region's water infrastructure has either poor leakage management ... or very inefficient use of its water resources," Kirton said.

"No matter the shape of local government to come, as our councils work through amalgamation, the biggest problem to be faced is the state of all our water woes."

A spokesperson for Hastings council said water leakage was complex and the findings in the latest report reinforced information previously reported by the council.

In 2022/23, smart water meters were installed in 2000 properties to trial the technology.

An analysis of the meters in October 2024 showed a small number of homes were using much more water than others.

The council contacted the owners of the seven highest-using properties, recommending they check for leaks or other issues.

By 2025, their combined daily water use had dropped by 101 cubic metres.

The spokesperson said the council continued working to increase its understanding of water loss.

Napier City Council executive director of water services Russell Bond said between June 2025 and March 2026, the council inspected 114km of pipes, about 25% of its network, and found 107 leaks.

He said leaks on private property were harder to address directly.

But he said the council’s Water Demand Management Strategy, adopted earlier this year, was a practical roadmap for changing how water was used.

Bond said the roadmap also targeted the city’s 100 largest non-residential water users, who account for 62% of metered non-residential demand, as well as schools, which make up a further 7.5%.

The report also compared daily residential water use across the region, showing Central Hawke's Bay had the highest consumption at 2270 litres per connection per day.

Wairoa followed with 1684 litres, while Hastings recorded 1224 litres per connection each day.

Napier was in the mid-range of councils for residential water use at 628 litres per connection per day.

However, CHB infrastructure and asset management group manager Mark Kinvig said the water calculation in the report assumed the total volume of treated water produced went to residential connections only.

"It did not take into account the volume of water our non-residential users use. Non-residential users include our commercial operators, which use the majority of our treated water," Kinvig said.

"We meter and charge our commercial users for water. Nor did it account for any water losses, as we have no water loss data."

The Hastings council spokesperson also said the accuracy of water use figures wasn’t certain.

"As noted by Taumata Arowai, these estimates should be interpreted with some caution.

"They reflect mixed urban-rural usage, local network characteristics or data limitations, rather than actual household consumption alone," the spokesperson said.

The report also included wastewater information for 2024/25, showing Napier City and Hastings District councils had 10 overflow events across the year, Central Hawke’s Bay reported four, while no information was supplied for Wairoa.

Central Hawke’s Bay was near the top of the capital and operational spending table for drinking water nationally, spending $818 per person on capital and $969 on operational expenditure per person in the region in the 2024/25 financial year.

Napier was second to bottom for drinking water spending, $83 of capital and $87 of operational expenditure over the same period. Hastings District Council spent $183 per person on capital works and $162 on operational expenditure.

– LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.