The Pipeline's Nearly There

If Gisborne can still afford it. a bottle of champagne should be cracked within the next few months to mark a notable milestone: The Completion Of The 21" Water Pipeline Between The City And Waingake. The Job has taken about five years.

Ratepayers might not be able to afford champagne, of course. The cost has been in the region of £350,000.

For this money the city has got a guarantee of a reasonably adequate water supply for present requirements. But it won't be enough to reticulate the whole city, or for future requirements, and whenever there is heavy rain in the hills, the water will still look more like mud than champagne.

Another £300,000 could be required to eliminate that mud and take care of increasing demand over the next 20 years. After that, if Gisborne's still growing, more dams and pipes will be needed.

×

 

• 

×

 

• 

Laying pipes last week near Waingake

×

 

• 

The Mangapoike dam and lake

Extension of reticulation in Gisborne to parts of city not yet supplied, plus a new reservoir in Kaiti, and other city works are expected to cost £110,000.

Without counting what was spent before 1954, these figures suggest that Gisborne's water supply scheme will cost nearly £700,000 by 1964. And before these loans are repaid, additional extensions may be needed to service increased population, including another dam at Mangapoike.

Details given here are based on reports by the City Engineer, Mr H. C. Williams, who has brought a realistic approach to the city's water and sewerage problems.

×

 

• 

To Waingake and Gisborne
Te Arai River
Smith's Creek
Pipe Crosses ridge here
Dam (3 miles)
Panorama of Te Arai headwaters shows part of 2500-acre bush reserve from which most of Gisborne's water is drawn. Mangapoike dam is about three miles out of picture to right. Pipeline from dam crosses the Mangapoike-Te Arai watershed ridge at arrow. Once over the ridge, water flows down Smith's Creek into Te Arai River. Cost of works in this area, including piping in rough country could be £100,000.

×

 

• 

Water from Mangapoike dam runs in open channel in Smith's Creek.

×

 

• 

Arrow points to present settling tank at Waingake. A new reservoir is to be built half a mile upstream, and nearly 100ft higher, and a new pipeline will connect this with a new intake in the Te Arai, Approximate cost: £100,000.