‘Clearly something has gone very wrong’: Water and sewage swamps Wellington suburb again
Friday, 5 June 2026
The first Island Bay flood was exceptional but Wellington community leaders say a second, in just a matter of weeks, shows the issues are systemic.
However, Wellington Water chief operating officer Charles Barker confirmed to The Post that the culprit for Friday’s related sewage blockage and overflow into some properties had been found ‒ large pieces of building timber that had no legitimate way to get into the sewage system found in pipes near Island Bay’s Shorland Park.
“It hasn’t been flushed down the toilet,” he said.
Meanwhile, the 25.7mm of rain that fell in Berhampore in a single hour early on Friday morning was heavy but nothing on the 77mm in a single hour in the same spot on April 20, which caused serious flooding in southern suburbs and a death in Karori.
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With one-third of the rain on Friday, homes still came close to flooding with residents, still clearing up from last time while nervously watching the rising water, which also contained sewage due to a blocked pipe.
Paekawakawa/Southern ward Wellington City councillor Nureddin Abdurahman visited an Island Bay child care centre that was closed on Friday after sewage and water flooded backwards into the business.
“It shows this is a systemic problem,” he said.
It seemed, at the childcare centre, pipes may have been crossed. But elsewhere, locals told him the stormwater pipe and outfall to the sea were not wide enough, some gutters had been raised to the point they were useless, and there were parts of the Parade roadway built-up higher than footpaths ‒ meaning the road pushed water towards homes.
“There are so many issues,” he said. He personally saw contractors clearing sewage from the public areas but leaving private properties, strewn with “nasty stuff” which residents had to clean up themselves. Barker later said private properties were disinfected and cleaned by Wellington Water crews.
Fellow ward councillor Laurie Foon said it was concerning “these system failures continue to occur“.
“There is ongoing and unresolved trauma in the community from the April 20 event and another event so quickly after is far from helpful,” she said.
Mayor Andrew Little said there was an “issue about some of the road scapes, and properly qualified people are going to look at the features of the road to make sure the water is directed to where it needs to go.
“We need to make sure our streets are designed to let the water flow where it needs to,” Little said.
Labour Wellington Bays candidate Craig Renney said the floods were a symptom of “under-investment writ large”.
The April 20 floods were seen as a one-off but Friday showed “we really need some infrastructure investment” and ratepayers ‒ or Tiaki Wai payers ‒ couldn’t do it without Government help.
National’s Wellington Bays candidate Karunā Muthu pledged, if elected to Parliament this year, to “fight” for Government money to be released to fix Wellington’s water infrastructure issues. He would also work with Tiaki Wai and the council on fixing issues.
John Wierenga lives on The Parade, the main route through Island Bay, and was alarmed to wake early on Friday to the sound of heavy rain. He was flooded on April 20.
'I've only just finished having my house fixed up with new carpet and paint,' he said.
Wierenga hadn't seen the sewage flow at its peak, but he had seen videos showing it flowing down the gutters.
There have been several new housing developments in the suburb, which Wierenga believed placed strain on existing infrastructure.
“I’m worried for me, and for a lot of local residents.”
On Friday morning about 9am, the worst of the mess had been cleared. The footpath outside Wierenga’s house was cordoned off, with brown scum covering the surface.
Up the road, the Curious Minds Early Learning Centre had closed for the day. The water had come in from the street on April 20. This time, it had come from within, overflowing from the toilets, a staff member said.
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter said the overnight downpour was intense, but not out of the ordinary.
“Clearly something has gone very wrong for faeces, tampons and condoms to end up on the street.”
Genter said rain was entering the wastewater system in two ways: leaking into old underground pipes, and from residential down pipes wrongly connected to the wastewater system instead of the stormwater system.
“Tiaki Wai is about to take over as the new water services entity and will have their work cut out for them,” she said.
She said the Government needed to underwrite the debt of new water entities, which would take the strain off local councils and allow the likes of Tiaki Wai to fix ageing infrastructure.
She encouraged anyone with concerns over flooding to attend a public meeting at Island Bay Presbyterian Church on Saturday at 2pm.