‘How are we going to survive this?’ Wellington faces si month wait to halt sewage spill

Key points

• A fix to stop millions of litres of sewage continuing to pour into the waters off the coast of New Zealand’s capital, Wellington will be in place by November, officials have said, with full repairs at the cost of NZ$53.5m by late next year.
• More than 100 days since the catastrophic failure of the city’s wastewater treatment plant on 4 February, a mix of raw and partially screened human effluent is still being flushed directly into the Pacific Ocean.
• In an announcement on Wednesday, Wellington’s mayor, Andrew Little, said the Moa Point wastewater plant would be operational again in six months.
• Work had begun to assess the damage and clean the plant, with all major repair works to be completed by November.
• By then, effluent would be removed and the waste products would be mostly treated, with water quality improving to the highest level within weeks.