Auckland’s new $1.6 billion sewer is online, but when will beaches be faeces-free?
Monday, 20 July 2026
Aucklanders are officially flushing into their new $1.66 billion sewer pipe, but it’ll be a few more years yet before faecal overflows at city centre beaches are finished.
On Monday, Watercare celebrated the northern section of the Central Interceptor coming online, with the 16.2km pipe now running from Point Erin to Māngere.
It’s New Zealand’s largest wastewater project, taking about eight years to complete.
Watercare chief executive Jamie Sinclair described the pipe as “the backbone” of Auckland's new sewer system, and said it had already brought measurable benefits.
Read more:
“Last month Auckland saw 22mm of rain in a single day – and for the first time in 110 years there was not overflow on Lyon Avenue in Mt Albert,” he said.
“It was one of the worst overflow points in Auckland and now it's almost eliminated.”
However, further upgrades will be necessary to stop overflows of wastewater at some beaches during heavy rain events.
Deputy mayor Desley Simpson told a crowd at Monday’s ceremony that the next project would be the Ōrākei main sewer ‒ “a 100-year-old piece of infrastructure that’s at real risk of collapse”.
The Newmarket Gully outlet, “nicknamed Hell’s Gate because it’s kind of one of the stinkiest worst places of engineered overflow the city has”, would also be upgraded, she said.
With the new pipeline sending Auckland's effluent to Māngere for treatment, Watercare is also having to find a new dumping site for biosolids. That’s because the ex-quarry on Puketutu Island is expected to be full within the next 10 years.
Sinclair said Watercare was now “looking at options” and was hoping to “finalise” which option to progress with by the end of the year.
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown, meanwhile, said the Central Interceptor was a noteworthy project in being “funded without a single cent from central government”.
“That’s probably why there’s no Cabinet ministers here,” he said. “When Auckland decides things ourselves it works very well. When … Wellington makes decisions, it doesn’t.”
Brown said the central interceptor would be critical to supporting growth in Auckland’s city centre.
“We don't want to be swimming up to our neck in toilet paper like our capital city,” he told the crowd.
Brown also took a swipe at the 1217-home Delmore development in Ōrewa, recently approved under the Government’s fast track consenting process.
He said it would result in “50 truck loads of treated effluent heading to Whangārei each day”.
“We’ll have to fight that, it’s nonsensical,” he told the crowd, later adding “the people that live there will probably appeal it as well”.
He said it would be hard for the Government to “justify in the court of public opinion”.
“I didn’t realise that Whangārei was that short on effluent.”
Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei’s Taiaha Hawke said when he was a child he used to collect oysters from the rocks.
“Now so many of us don’t swim at Okahu anymore,” he said.
Hawke said he “paid homage” to Watercare for addressing the infrastructure shortfall.
“But the proof is in the pudding, so we won’t all pat ourselves on the back just yet.
“But we know we are going to, and you can invite me back for the banquet.”