Central city water projects

As our central city grows, Council’s making it a priority for strategic infrastructure investment but what does this mean? Water and lots of it to enable more people to live centrally.  

Water is essential for communities and business and Council’s plan for the central city includes:   

Increasing the supply of drinking water and capacity for firefighting.  
Planning and improving the water supply, wastewater, and stormwater systems.   
Ensuring our water systems are resilient for our current residents and businesses and ready for more.

Over the coming years, more than $200 million is being invested into our central city’s water systems. Here’s how:

In the 2024-34 Long-Term Plan, Council allocated approximately $70 million to fund proactive upgrades for wastewater and water supply to enable more housing.

Funding for this activity and works begin from 2026 to establish and implement a long-term programme to:

proactively upgrade the local wastewater and water supply network throughout the central city.
these programmes are to support planned and prioritised intensification and comply with relevant standards and meet agreed levels of service (e.g. minimum pressure for water supply).

Council has also been allocated $150.6 million in Crown funding from the Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, which will support a range of water projects in the central city to help facilitate further development in the area, including:

Central city reservoir and pump station

To increase the supply of drinking water and capacity for firefighting as the central city grows.

- 25ML, that’s 25 million litres, reservoir (same volume as eight Olympic sized pools or 169,491,525 coffee cups).

- Pumpstation to move water from the reservoir to homes and businesses.

Construction: 2026

Expected Completion: 2028

Three waters planning and upsizing

To understand and plan for improvements to the water supply, wastewater and stormwater networks necessary to unlock housing in the central city.

Water supply and wastewater

Investigations will identify and start design of water supply and wastewater networks which need:

Pipes to be renewed (aka reactive works).
Pipes and pumpstations to be upsized.

Stormwater

An Integrated Catchment Management Plan is being developed to help Council make better decisions about land use, water resources and infrastructure to accommodate growth.

Benefits of investing in infrastructure for the central city community

Helps our central city to grow well.
Improved and resilient infrastructure to keep your water of the highest quality and your waste taken away so you don't have to worry.
Natural environment protected (wetlands and Waikato Awa (river) through environmental Planning.
Enables more people to call the central city as home - enabling around 4000 homes by 2035 for up to 10,000 people.

Find out more about the Central City Transformation Programme.