11 Sep 2013

Cooks water pressure project could backfire on homes with old pipes

3:39 pm on 11 September 2013

A project to upgrade plumbing on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands is almost completed, but nearly half of the homes serviced are feared to have incompatible pipes.

The project has involved laying new water mains under around 25 kilometres of road in the town area.

The project manager of the contractor Landholdings, Ben Parakoti, says the new water pressure will be too strong for the homes, and the old leaky pipes will need to be changed.

The Ministry of Infrastructure says it prefers individuals upgrade their own homes, as they have already allocated funding to other major projects, but no decision has been made yet.

Ben Parakoti says the problem, which affects 40 percent of homes, was not foreseen at the start of the project.

"So we're recommending that either we don't connect the properties, or we actually recommend to the owners what they should be doing because otherwise houses are going to be flooded and all that."

Ben Parakoti.