New Zealand Project to Protect Waitemata Harbor

Work has begun on a $50-million sewage project which will reduce an estimated 70 liters of contaminated water per year from flowing into Waitemata Harbor in Auckland, New Zealand. The project aims to separate sewage and storm water as part of a 20-year Auckland City Council and Metrowater plan.

Approximately 15 percent of the city's sewage and storm water systems flowed through the same pipes, according to Metrowater Chief Executive Jim Bentley. To do nothing, he said, would result in 2 billion liters of polluted water flowing into Waitemata Harbor and onto beaches by 2011. Heavy rains typically overload the combined pipes and send diluted raw sewage into open waterways, streams and the harbor. Construction is expected to take three years to complete.

Source: NZPA