6 May, 2026

Wastewater fix clears the air

Watercare has finished a permanent fix to a smelly wastewater problem in Forrest Hill’s the Morton Ave area.
Drains beneath the street were blocked by concrete, causing overflows earlier in the year which backed up onto a private property. Suction trucks had to be set up on the street, along with bypass pumps and above-ground temporary diversion pipes down through sections into William Souter Reserve to connect back into the network.

“We know this work was disruptive and we would like to thank the community for their patience while we fixed this complex issue,” said Watercare’s wastewater networks operations manager Faiz Salim. He said the cost of the complex repairs would not be known for another couple of months.
When the Observer reported on the issues in March, homeowner Hairi Mangud said he had experienced intermittent problems since late December and had struggled to get adequate action.
He was left with dirty water under his deck and had to keep doors and windows shut in summer.
At the time, Watercare told the paper the bypass was needed for around 60-plus homes while it designed a solution. The issue was complex.

“This involved our crew installing a new 180mm pipe using horizontal directional drilling, which was aligned away from residential properties,” Salim said last month. “Reinstatement work has been done at the private properties that were affected by third-party damage to two of our service lines.”
Unused fill and topsoil was also to be removed from the reserve.

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