NEWCASTLE – Ageing pipes have put a damper on water-saving endeavours.
With the district still reeling from the drought, calls for conservation of precious water resources were washed away by numerous burst pipes and overflows.
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These included an impromptu geyser, which erupted on Kirkland Street on Monday.
Problems surfaced at the weekend, with municipal workers dispatched to repair a section of piping near the intersection of Allen and York streets.
Not long afterward, water began to fountain out of a hydrant lower down on York Street.
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“We haven’t had water for a few hours now,” a resident commented. “When it came back on, the pressure was very low.”
Both the crossings of Hibiscus Avenue and Coronation Road, and of Lincoln and Montague streets, also had to be dug up for the purpose of repairs.
This left some areas of Paradise without water.
Residents in both cases complained there was no communication from the municipality, and were given no chance to prepare for water outages.
The high-pressure overflow on Kirkland Street was the foul cherry on top.
According to a municipal source, the hydrant overflow and repairing of burst pipes were in fact linked problems.
“You have to shut off water at the intersections, which leaves air in the pipes. We release that through the hydrants.”
While he admitted one could not disregard from the age of the pipe infrastructure, the source said the drought had also wreaked havoc on the system.
Drops in water level were to blame for upsetting an already precarious network.
“When usage picks up, it puts strain on the system, and if there’s even a slight shift, the pipes break,” he concluded. “Yes, it’s a domino effect.”
