Flooding on a West Coast farm on 23 October. Photo: SUPPLIED/PĀMU FARMS OF NZ
Damage from the storm at the Greater Greymouth Water Treatment Plant has caused the water supply on the West Coast to become critically low.
The Omoto Reservoir is down to 10 percent, affecting those in Greymouth, Cobden, Blaketown, Boddytown, Karoro, South Beach, Paroa, Kaiata, Dobson, Taylorville, Stillwater, Runanga, Dunollie, Coal Creek and Rapahoe.
Grey District mayor Tania Gibson told RNZ the region had been hit hard by the weather.
"Our water treatment plant wasn't immune to, we're thinking, power surges and technical difficulties from the weather we were having," she said.
Grey District mayor Tania Gibson Photo: Supplied
"Our guys have been frantically trying to fix that issue, but we need some help from an outside engineer, and we've been getting him online to try and do it remotely... but in the meantime, the water reservoirs dropped dramatically very quickly, and the town is very fast running out of water."
A water tanker has been sent to the Grey District Council Civic Centre car park, Gibson said, with a limit of four litres per person.
"The tanker driver said that he will go backwards and forth, but he is from Westland, which is half an hour away.
"It's a 12,000 litre tanker, but there is only one certified water cartridge on the Coast, and that is them."
Gibson said more water would be brought in from supermarkets in Westport and Hokitika.
Grey District Council had also asked local supermarkets to limit the amount of water that could be bought, and for people to conserve what they do have left.
Damage to SH7 on West Coast. Photo: Supplied / NZ Transport Agency
"We're also looking at, if the roads open and we're still having these issues, that we are bringing some in from Christchurch, but at the moment, that's not possible."
Gibson said it had been "pretty rough" around the Grey District with a lot of debris across roads as well as damage to roofs and glass houses.
"We've had to pivot very quickly because it was all starting to come down somewhat, but this is an evolving situation that we've got everybody working on that we possibly can right now."
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