The breakdown of a truck bringing a replacement section of water main to Tauranga is adding a critical delay to restoring a full water supply to the city's western suburbs.
The truck and replacement pipe is now expected in Tauranga some time on Friday morning. The 12 hour delay means it will now be a race to repair the pipe before Bethlehem, Brookfield, Otumoetai and Matua run out of water.

Photo from Bruno Weidmann.

The water main supplying the Cambridge Road reservoirs ruptured on Wednesday evening. There is a smaller supply line still working, but it cannot cope with the demand.
On Thursday afternoon water was going into the Cambridge road reservoirs at 80 litres per second – and it was going out at 150 litres per second.
Reservoir levels were at 44 per cent at 7.30am on Friday. They dropped to 39 per cent on Thursday evening but rose again overnight.
Today the levels are expected to drop another 20 per cent, reducing the supply to one tenth of normal – a critical level at which people in the affected areas will begin to notice a drop in water pressure, says Tauranga City Council communications adviser Marcel Currin.
'Today's message is, if it uses water and it can possibly wait until Sunday, please wait,” says Marcel.